Tag: El Salvador

Trump Administration Cuts $500 Million from Central American NGO’s Budgets

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

Holy cow!  Who knew! Not only do millions of your tax dollars go to the nine federal refugee contractors*** in the US, but we send apparently billions to supposedly Christian social justice groups in places like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Let the wailing begin as the groups claim that they use our millions to keep citizens of those countries from fleeing toward our southern border, so cutting them off is wrong they say.

It is pretty clear for all to see that even with billions of dollars over the years they have failed spectacularly in stopping the invasion and I assume the State Department has pretty much figured that out.

 

Honduran migrants on the way to the US in 2018

 

I wish I had time today to take a deep dive into past funding for the groups that include, Proyecto Aldea Global, Association for a More Just Society, International Justice Mission and World Vision, but I don’t.

Here is the story at Christianity Today:

Christian Nonprofits Reeling from Trump Cuts to Foreign Aid

Christian ministries in Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador know they are in for a tough year. The US government has drastically cut aid to the three Central American countries in response to the large number of refugees who have fled north to seek asylum in America. Some of the more than $500 million of US taxpayer money was going to Christian nonprofits working on economic development, anti-corruption efforts, and helping children in poverty in the three countries. Those ministries will have to lay people off, reduce services, and scramble to find other funds.  [Just call George Soros and ask him to supply the funds—ed]

“The Trump administration shot itself in the foot with these cuts,” said Chet Thomas, director of Proyecto Aldea Global in Honduras, which has been forced to stop a job training program that gave teenagers alternatives to working for criminal gangs. “These projects are designed to … reduce the number of people migrating to the US.”

US foreign aid flows through various channels. In many cases, it ends up funding nongovernmental organizations, including Christian relief organizations in the area of Central American known as the Northern Triangle. Many of these address the conditions that cause people to flee their homes and seek asylum, leading to a crisis at the US border. Some ministries work directly with host governments to train national staff and increase the effectiveness of state institutions. Others focus more on community development, often building connections with local churches that don’t trust their government and don’t have many of their own resources.

Governments must do their jobs!

Justifying the cuts, the State Department appeared to downplay the role of nonprofit groups in addressing migration. “We expect the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to keep their commitments to stem illegal immigration to the United States,” it said in a statement.

More here.

Sure looks to me that the State Department calculated that based on the hordes flooding to the US border, we weren’t getting our money’s worth from these ‘Christian non-profits’.

However, some US ‘religious charities’ are not seeing huge funding cuts!

*** Here (below) are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

I’m not posting my usual spiel, but only want to say that in my analysis of funds received by three contractors (so far) since Trump took office, only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a large cut in its federal funding.

Church World Service and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service are still about on par with federal funding as they were under Obama.

I’ll have more to say when I’ve been through all nine.

 

Federal refugee resettlement contractors blast Trump for ending 'temporary' status for Salvadorans

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Temporary Protected Status (legal!) program is designed to give a break (usually 18 months) for nationals, from another country who are already in the US when the natural disaster or civil war happens, to stay here until the country is on its feet again.
In March, Salvadorans (and El Salvador), will have had a 17 YEAR break.
For 17 years hundreds of thousands have had time to produce nearly 200,000 more children, get jobs, drivers licenses (and I will bet vote!).  See USCIS on TPS for El Salvador here.
Calling the program ‘temporary’ is a joke.
It has to end sometime and the Trump Administration has decided that September 2019 is it!
The Leftwing Open Borders activists, including obviously refugee resettlement contractors***, have been working toward amnesty for a decade or more and the Salvadorans would have been a recipient of such an amnesty.

Matthew Soerens
Matthew Soerens of World Relief says El Salvador will be destabilized when they lose all of those US dollars Salvadorans send home—US dollars that leave the US economy! 

In the Gang of Eight bill they would have been essentially hired by the feds to do for the newly amnestied what they do for refugees—get them signed up for their services (aka welfare). And, it would have expanded their Left-leaning political power through their immigrant dependents.
So it is no surprise to see them complaining now!
Here is the Christian Post reporting on our old pals:

Christian leaders and organizations are speaking out against the Trump administration move on Monday to terminate protected status for thousands of El-Salvadoran immigrants who have been allowed to live and work in the United States for over a decade. [For over a decade, you mean nearly two decades!—ed]

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday made a decision to terminate “Temporary Protected Status” that has allowed El-Salvadoran immigrants to legally work and live in the U.S. since two earthquakes struck the Central American country in 2001. The move could affect up to nearly 200,000 people and it’s a move that prominent evangelical leaders pressured the Trump administration not to make.

The administration claims the decision, which takes effect in September 2019 after an 18-month transition period, was made after an “inter-agency consultation process” determined that “the original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist.” Yet, human rights advocates are warning that El Salvador is not economically able to sustain a massive return.

“But the reality is that El Salvador is among most violent countries in the world & among poorest in Western Hemisphere,” Matthew Soerens, the director of church mobilization for the evangelical refugee resettlement organization World Relief, tweeted on Monday. “It will be significantly destabilized by sudden insertion of so many returnees & by sudden halt of remittance money sent home by workers in US.”

Bishop Joe S. Vásquez
Bishop Joe S. Vásquez

So how long must we be blackmailed by threats of a destablized El Salvador? How long must we watch US dollars leave the US economy in the form of remittances? And why should refugee contractor World Relief care?  These are NOT refugees.
But, if they do care so much, World Relief (and the US Bishops) could do the really brave thing and instead of living in comfort/collecting handsome salaries and bullying Americans into ‘welcoming’ the stranger, go to El Salvador and help the people where they live!

And, of course the US Bishops whine! (See that they got $95 million from taxpayers in 2016 for their Christian charity for migrants, here.)

“The decision to terminate TPS for El Salvador is heartbreaking. As detailed in our recent delegation trip report to the region, El Salvador is currently not in a position to adequately handle the return of the roughly 200,000 Salvadoran TPS recipients,” Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on migration, said in a statement, adding that the decision will “fragment American families.

Fragment American families! The families could go together to their homeland!
For my Evangelical readers, you may not know that there is a Leftwing Open Borders Evangelical consortium.  You need to do a little research to see if your church is involved.

The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition evangelical organizations that represent millions of believers across multiple denominations, also pressured the Trump administration to extend the TPS program for El Salvador until a permanent legislative fix can be enacted through Congress.

More here.
***These are the nine federal contractors who are paid by you to place refugees in your towns. If there were millions given amnesty in the coming years those groups listed below would be hired by the feds to help them get settled and get their taxpayer-supplied stuff.

There can be no immigration reform as long as taxpayers finance these political agitation groups masquerading as humanitarian charities:

Trump Effect: More Central American migrants want asylum in Mexico, not moving on to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, that is how asylum is supposed to work.
Anyone who meets the legal definition of a refugee*** is supposed to seek asylum in the first safe country they reach—not go asylum-shopping throughout the continent as we saw in yesterday’s report on the rush to the Canadian border by many migrants illegally in the US.

More Central American young men are staying in Mexico and applying for asylum. UN sending more workers to process them.

For probably a couple of decades the open borders left has been trying to expand the definition of ‘refugee’ (fleeing violence or looking for better economic conditions does not make one a refugee!) and to condone the practice of asylum-shopping (seeking the best deal!).
The Left wants you to believe that anyone on the move, anywhere in the world, is a legitimate refugee!
Here is a sob-story about how Mexico is being increasingly saddled with Central Americans who would normally be simply passing through to a better deal in the US.
From Buzzfeed News (hat tip: Joanne):

Fleeing violence in their home countries, more Central Americans are seeking asylum in Mexico instead of making the trip north to the US, according to the United Nations.

More Central Americans are seeking asylum upon reaching Mexico, rather than attempt to make it into the US, where the Trump administration has been clamping down on immigration.

The number of Central Americans applying for refugee status in Mexico has been steadily increasing since 2011, but applications surged in 2016 by 156% compared to the year prior, according to Mark Manly, a representative in Mexico for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mark Manly (UNHCR)

“What we have seen is more people arrive in Mexico, not because they’re in transit for a better future in the United States, but they are fleeing for their lives and see in Mexico a country that can offer protection and asylum,” Manly said in an interview released by the UN.

As in previous years, many Central Americans continue to flee violence in Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, but instead of passing through on their way to the US, many of them are looking to make a new home in Mexico, Manly said. [That is how asylum is supposed to work!—ed]

From November 2016 to March, Mexico’s commission for refugee assistance, known as COMAR, received 5,421 asylum applications. During the same five-month period in 2015, the agency received 2,148 applications, Reuters reported.

As applications for refugee status mount, the Mexico government and United Nations have had to beef up border resources to handle the strain on resources.  [Good! Not our problem!—ed]

More here.
Endnote:
Obama began processing Central Americans to the US as ‘refugees’ directly from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala last year.  The practice continues under Trump.  We have admitted (directly from their home country) over a thousand (1,106 as of today) mostly fake ‘refugees’ from El Salvador to the US in FY2016 and 2017.
*** Refugee definition (do you see anything in here about violence or economic need?)

(42) The term “refugee” means:

(A) any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion….

For the zillionth time, a legitimate refugee is supposed to be able to prove he or she will be PERSECUTED!  Anyone looking for economic well-being is an “economic migrant.”  Fleeing gangs and violence does not make one a refugee! Notice that war isn’t mentioned either!

There goes the hellhole myth for El Salvador and Guatemala; so why the flood of migrants?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Could it be that Obama Administration pals in the No Borders movement (including the Catholic Church) used the “children” as pawns and started the stampede northward?  I think so, and hope one day we will all have the truth.

In the meantime, here comes a worldwide study that puts El Salvador and Guatemala in the top ten countries where people are most satisfied with their lives, while the US is number 12!

From the Daily Mail  (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’).  A picture is worth a thousand words:

 

Latin America is the place to feel happy: Seven of the top 10 countries in the well-being poll hailed from the Americas, with Canada rounding out the top 10. Six of the 10 worst were from Africa

 

Here is how the article begins (Respondents were asked to rate their well-being over five categories: purpose, social, financial, community and physical):

People in Panama feel happiest about their lives, according to a new global well-being poll in which the U.S. finished 12th and the United Kingdom 26th.

There were six Latin American countries in the top 10 in the poll, which asked people to measure their well-being across five key areas.

Panamanians were well above the world average for feeling positive about their lives – 61 per cent were found to be ‘thriving’ in at least three of the five facets – compared with just 17 per cent internationally.

Read it all.

See all of our posts on ‘Unaccompanied minors’ by clicking here.  The archive goes back several years.

Maryland Delegate: “…money is a principal driver of the foreign governments’ interest in immigration reform.”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editors note:  I posted this yesterday at Potomac Tea Party Report but since we frequently write about “Temporary” Refugees here, I thought this might be of interest to RRW readers as well.

That quote would be from Del. Ana Sol GUTIERREZ  of  Montgomery County, Maryland when she was being interviewed by The Hill a week ago on why she wants her El Salvadoran countrymen, who are now here on Temporary Protected Status, included in “comprehensive immigration reform.”  In fact, she wants them first in line.

She is referring to the hundreds of thousands of immigrants who came here illegally decades ago, but were given “temporary” refugee status (because back home there was a long-ago civil war or more likely a big storm or earthquake) and can do everything any American can do except vote.  However, they do get drivers licenses and I’ll bet you a buck they vote!

So what’s this about money to foreign governments?  And, beyond humanitarian concern?

Gutierrez in front of Salvadoran Money transfer business. Photo credit: Greg Dohler/The Gazette

The Hill tells us it is all about “remittances” here (emphasis mine):

Foreign governments are working hard to shape the debate on immigration reform as momentum for a comprehensive bill builds in Congress.

[….]

A number of countries with significant immigration ties to the United States — notably Mexico, Ireland and several Central American nations — have been making their concerns known while doing their best to avoid meddling in domestic affairs.

For many countries, the issue goes beyond humanitarian concern: Remittances from foreign nationals living in the U.S. provide a significant boost to the economies of their home countries.

Mexicans are here illegally but many Central Americans have TPS:

An estimated 7 million Mexicans in the country illegally stand to benefit from reform.

While Mexico has adopted a wait-and-see attitude, other countries have specific changes they hope to see in the law. However, they’re happy to do so discreetly — letting American groups take the lead.

That’s the case with El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua, three countries whose citizens have long been eligible for a temporary immigration status first offered in the wake of the civil wars of the 1980s.

The countries hope that immigration reform will include a path to permanent legal status, and eventually citizenship, for the estimated 300,000 or so Central Americans who are in the United States under the Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, which is up for renewal periodically. [LOL! for Salvadorans it was renewed just in time for the November 2012 election!—ed]

Gutierrez:  We want the Salvadorans first in line

The Salvadoran embassy has requested updated data from U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services, said Maryland state Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez (D), a Salvadoran-American immigration activist.

The embassy reached out to other embassies to do the same in order to get a better sense of how many Central Americans currently benefit from the program. El Salvador is believed to have about 210,000 of its citizens currently in the U.S. under the program.

“We just need to be able to say, ‘These are the people we want to be first in line because they’ve already been here,’ ” Gutierrez said. “First of all, they have to pass background checks every 18 months, they have to pay taxes, they’ve been here with a legal status.

So far! (So far!) “Temporary” refugees are not included in Obama’s amnesty plan.  Let the squabbling begin!

TPS reform is not included in the principles of the White House immigration reform proposal, Gutierrez said.

So readers, the next time someone puts you on an emotional guilt-trip about the poor and downtrodden seeking a “better future,” remember! as I said yesterday, this is all being driven by money for big businesses in need of cheap labor and by foreign governments  propping up their economies as Gutierrez makes clear!

The Hill story continues:

Gutierrez said money is a principal driver of the foreign governments’ interest in immigration reform.

[….]

Total remittances to El Salvador in 2010 were $3.6 billion in 2010.

For Mexico, the figure was $22.7 billion, or 2.1 percent of GDP.

That says it all, fewer jobs for Americans because we need to prop-up the third world.

Read the entire Hill story, there is much more.

For more on the TPS racket, see all of our previous posts at Potomac Tea Party Report .  And here are the posts at RRW on the topic.