Tag: Eskinder Negash

USCRI Who? This Refugee Resettlement Agency is Laying Low, and Doing Well

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

I’ve been noticing the absence of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the top nine federal contractors***, in all the anti-Trump media hubbub and wondered if they were shrinking financially and therefore laying low to stay out of Trump’s line of sight.

So I checked today, and guess what?

USCRI is approximately 96% federally funded, and…..

They are doing financially better under the Trump Administration than they ever did in the Obama years. 

But, before I give you the data, let me tell you how much controversy they stirred over the years.

Memory lane:

Former USCRI CEO Lavinia Limon with Chobani CEO at the Clinton Global Initiative (all you need to know!).

Longtime readers may remember the huge controversy in Twin Falls, Idaho that I wrote about extensively for months that involved USCRI’s subcontractor there.  It revolved around Chobani Yogurt’s hunger for refugee labor and came to a media explosion over the sexual abuse of a child by refugee boys.

Then there was USCRI’s effort to open a new office in Rutland, VT that ended in failure when citizens rose up, protested, and threw out the ‘welcoming’ mayor.

Earlier I reported on the mess USCRI was embroiled in in Bowling Green, KY when Burmese refugees were placed in substandard housing.

(Here I am going to urge readers to use the search window top right at RRW and enter key words to find out more about Twin Falls, Rutland, Bowling Green, Lavinia Limon, Eskinder Negash etc. and save me some work putting in a zillion links!)

One point on the issue of subcontractors: 

Someone knowledgeable about the big nine recently mentioned that local agencies don’t have the same name sometimes as their parent organization.  Exactly right! Whether they do that on purpose I don’t know, but for those of you wanting to better understand how secretive this program is, that is one important piece of evidence.

Hundreds of subcontractors work for the big nine and those nine move federal funding to their subcontractors usually referred to as affiliates.

They have been wailing and moaning about having to close offices in the Trump era, apparently Trump isn’t hurting USCRI.

Go here to see USCRI’s affiliates:

 

Revolving door!

Also, USCRI is notable as a prime example of the revolving door between government contractors and the agencies from which the organization gets most of its funding.

Both USCRI’s previous CEO Lavinia Limon (headed Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement) and its present CEO Eskinder Negash (headed Obama’s ORR) revolved in and out of government.  Both have done very well themselves in the process as you will see below.

First, here is the stunning financial information at USA Spending.  (I told readers how to use the invaluable site in Knowledge is Power V.)

Remember that we are only 4 months into FY2020 and that is why that number is so low. So check back in September.

 

Looking at the most recently available IRS Form 990, we can say that USCRI is 96% federally funded—that is funded by you, the US taxpayer!

That means they are acting like a government agency but without any of the checks and balances of a federal agency. For example you can’t use the Freedom of Information Act to get information out of a ‘non-profit.’

Check out the 6-figure salaries you pay!  Some are higher than US Senators or Supreme Court Justices!

Ms. Limon is gone, but apparently not at the time this Form990 was filed. By the way the next page lists four additional employees making above six-figures. https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/131/878/2018-131878704-1108fd6f-9.pdf

 

See all of my Knowledge is Power series.

*** Here are the nine major federal refugee contractors.  I’ve analyzed five so far including USCRI today and only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a serious budgetary hit under the Trump Administration.  Congress and the Deep staters are making sure these fake non-profits are staying in the black.

So far only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has seen a significant decline in its federal funding.  In fact the three who recently sued to stop the Trump refugee reform effort—Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS—are doing very well.  Now we know that USCRI is doing exceedingly well.

I will work on the remaining four in the coming days and weeks.

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Rutland, Vermont refugee program officially dead (for now)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since I’m on the subject of Vermont—see machete attacker is son of Somali refugee in my previous post.
And, since I told you about the shake-up at USCRI (the federal refugee contractor in charge of Vermont) yesterday, I figured that you might want to know the latest from Rutland where a huge public battle over a new refugee office was waged over the last couple of years.
New readers might want to see my archive on Rutland by clicking here.
From The Rutland Herald yesterday.  The tone of the article suggests the media is miffed that they weren’t informed of the meeting with USCRI’s new top dog, Eskinder Negash.  Par for the course that refugee discussions are done in secrecy and who knows it better than the citizens of Rutland!

Rutland is not expecting any more refugees during the current fiscal year, according to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

eskinder_negash
Eskinder Negash the new CEO at USCRI.  Sure wish we knew what happened that saw Lavinia Limon “retire.”

A letter dated Jan. 4, from Eskinder Negash, acting chief executive of the refugee organization, said USCRI officials were asked by the State Department Bureau of Populations, Refugees and Migration to revise its placement plan for the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, based on “several executive orders.”

“Based on PRM’s instructions and our analysis, we regrettably write to inform you that USCRI will ‘zero out’ its refugee arrival target for Rutland, VT, until we hear further notice from PRM on the resumption of refugee arrivals,” Negash said in the letter.

Mayor David Allaire posted the news on his Facebook page Wednesday in a post that was not initially made public and was only available to Allaire’s Facebook friends. The post was updated to be made public Thursday afternoon.

Allaire, along with Alderman Chris Ettori, attended a meeting at the Community College of Vermont’s campus in downtown Rutland on Wednesday. Negash and Amila Merdzanovic, director of the USCRI program in Vermont, also attended.

The Rutland Herald learned of the meeting and developments from USCRI from someone who attended the meeting. There are no indications the media was invited to the meeting or informed in advance that it was taking place.

Phil_Scott_2017
Republican governor Scott welcomes refugees and immigrants to the Green Mountain state (aka Green card state!). Including machete man?

Attempts to reach Negash and Merdzanovic on Thursday afternoon were unsuccessful.

[….]

While the recent work by USCRI officials to bring refugees from Syria and Iraq to Rutland has been controversial, USCRI has been relocating refugees to Vermont for 30 years.

Did they resettle the Somali machete hacker family?
Rutland Herald continues…..
 

Negash also said USCRI leaders “greatly appreciate Gov. (Phil) Scott’s strong support for refugee resettlement.” A call to a Scott representative was not returned Thursday afternoon.

On Jan. 29, 2017, Scott issued a statement in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting immigration and refugee resettlement.

“I can’t imagine what Vermont, or our country, would look like today, had we refused to allow immigrants from all reaches of the world to experience this wonderful country the way most of us have, simply because they were not born here or didn’t share our exact religious view,” the statement said.

Much more here.
See more of my posts on Vermont generally by clicking here.
The US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) is one of nine federal contractors with hundreds of subcontractors under them that monopolize all resettlement in the US. USCRI has staked out Vermont for itself.  (Numbers in parenthesis after each is the percentage of their funding you give them via your tax dollars.)

 

Long time refugee advocate and refugee agency CEO is gone

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This isn’t exactly breaking news!
Lavinia Limon stepped down as head of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) last October according to a statement by the head of its board of directors. However, it may not have been a voluntary retirement. Someone recently reported to me that she was “forced” out during a period of growing “panic” among the nine federal contractors who are seeing their budgets shrink as refugee arrivals slow.
USCRI is presently being led by her longtime sidekick, Eskinder Negash.
This is a portion of the statement (about her ‘retirement’) from Board Chairman attorney Gene DeFilice:

Message from the Chairman of the Board of USCRI

Dear USCRI staff and partner agencies,

Lavinia Limon, CEO and President of USCRI has decided to retire from USCRI effective October 13, 2017. The Board appreciates Ms. Limon’s over four decades of service to refugees and immigrants, and her contribution to USCRI, thanks her, and wishes her the best in her future endeavors.

lavinia-and-chobani
A picture worth a thousand words. Limon was Bill Clinton’s Director of ORR and here she is with Mr. Chobani Yogurt. USCRI is the agency bringing refugee labor to Twin Falls, Idaho which benefits globalist Chobani!

The Board of Directors has appointed Mr. Eskinder Negash as acting Chief Executive Officer. The Board is currently in the process of conducting a national search, which includes the consideration of Mr. Negash.

Mr. Negash, a refugee himself, has devoted his entire distinguished career to addressing the needs of refugees and immigrants. Mr. Negash brings nearly 40 years of experience working on behalf of refugees and immigrants and managing non-profit social service agencies. Prior to joining USCRI, Mr. Negash served as Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), within the Administration of Children and Families, at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from 2009-2015. With a budget of over 1.5 billion, the ORR is the largest government-funded refugee resettlement organization in the world. During Mr. Negash’s tenure, the ORR provided essential services to more than 850,000 vulnerable people through its Resettlement Program, Rescue & Restore anti-trafficking campaign, and the Unaccompanied Children’s Program.

Additionally, Mr. Negash served as Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer of the International Institute of Los Angeles for 15 years, and the Chief Operating Officer of USCRI from 2002-2009.

[….]

As we thank Lavinia for her service, say good-bye, and wish her well, please join me in congratulating and supporting Eskinder as he assumes the position of acting Chief Executive Officer of USCRI.

Sincerely,

Gene DeFelice

Chairman of the Board of Directors of USCRI

(There was no mention of retirement party or farewell gala.)
If you are a longtime reader of RRW, you know that both Lavinia Limon and Eskinder Negash have been gracing our pages for years.

Lavinia-Eskinder-Full-e1450277904628
Negash and Limon in happier days!

Click here for a huge archive on Limon and here for Negash.   I don’t have the time (or patience) for a rundown on their whole careers.
However, just a few key bits of information on Limon.
She was Bill Clinton’s Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and I believe a key player in promoting the idea of refugee labor for BIG MEAT (and eventually BIG YOGURT) that began with Clinton admitting large numbers of Bosnian Muslims for his friends in the Iowa beef industry during her leadership of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS.
It is actually a clever scheme: Bring in cheap captive labor ($$$) for your industry pals and wear the white hat of humanitarianism as you do it!
Michael Leahy at Breitbart chronicled Limon’s career here (a must read!).
As for Negash, he left his post as Director of the ORR (note both of them revolved in and out of government) under strange, never explained, circumstances, see here.

Again, I have no idea why this shakeup at USCRI, but it is more evidence that Donald Trump’s refugee policies are breaking up old alliances and power structures in the swamp.

USCRI’s finances….

You can imagine that they are hurting.  They are one of the nine federal contractors*** that is almost completely federally funded.  See a discussion of their finances here from last March. I put them (at that time) at about 94% funded by the government (you).  Limon was making a largely federally funded salary/related income of over $300,000!
And then see here when I analyzed all nine contractors a few months later, I put them at 98% government funded.  I was using facts provided by Charity Navigator which told me that this agency could not be evaluated because:

This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated.

Go here to find an USCRI subcontractor office near you.

And, this reminds me, speaking of CEOs leaving, I wonder what is happening over at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service that was undergoing a shake-up at about the same time, see here. 
Did Hartke survive?
*** These are the nine federal contractors largely funded by you. In parenthesis, after each, is the percentage of their income funded by Congress out of the US Treasury.  They are paid by the head to resettle refugees, so as the Trump Administration slows the flow into the country, their budgets are being strained to the breaking point.

Florida: Refugee contractors squabble over government boodle

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I have to admit this is some great reporting at the Huffington Post.
It adds considerable detail to a dispute we knew a little about, but more importantly it is a window into the ‘souls’ of the ‘humanitarian’ refugee contractors. We have been telling readers for years that resettling refugees, and in this case taking care of the so-called Unaccompanied Alien Children, is all about MONEY.  It is about competition between contractors and it is about the revolving door as contractors become political appointees then return to their former boss (the contractor) as recipients of lucrative government contracts.
This is a complicated story and I’m going to urge you to read it all, but here is what you need to know about a couple of the key players in this drama.

And, let me ask at the outset!  Where is Congress?

Lavinia and Negash
Eskinder Negash (left) and Lavinia Limon (second from right).

Some of the players (we have many posts here at RRW on these characters, search their names):
Lavinia Limon was Bill Clinton’s head of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and now heads the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI).
Eskinder Negash was a Vice President at USCRI before he was chosen to head the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Obama Administration. Negash resigned suddenly in December of 2014.  No one ever publicly explained his sudden departure.  And, then eventually he returned to USCRI.
Bob Carey is now the head of ORR (replacing Negash) and he comes to the government job from yet another contractor, the International Rescue Committee.  And, although not mentioned here, the person in charge of refugees at the US State Department, Anne Richard, came to her perch there from, you guessed it, the International Rescue Committee.
So, the IRC has two former employees heading the two major agencies involved with resettling refugees. But, that is a story for another day!
The arrival of tens of thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the summer of 2014, and many thousands before and since, unleashed gobs of government grant and contract money to the same agencies (the nine big refugee contractors and two other newer contractors) not only for the care of the ‘children’ which they are pretending are legitimate refugees/asylum seekers, but also for their legal fees in their attempts to keep them here in America by transforming them into legal immigrants.
train children
The ‘children’ represent cold hard cash for non-government refugee contractors.

Which brings us to this incredible piece of reporting!
Of course, the spin here is that the children are suffering (and the legal system will be bogged down), but readers take note: this report raises questions about alleged corruption in the entire grants and contracts system run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Dept. of Health and Human Services.

The tip-off that there is a problem comes when the Catholic Bishops get mad that USCRI is getting some boodle unfairly when they want the boodle!

 
Bizarre Contract Dispute Putting Thousands Of Migrant Children At Risk, by Ryan Grim, begins:

WASHINGTON — Thousands of unaccompanied minors who came across the U.S. border as part of the migrant crisis are at risk of being deported without due process, the archbishop of Miami has warned the Obama administration.

Although the law dictates that these children must be given legal services, recent moves by the Office of Refugee Resettlement have thrown that into doubt. ORR, which is an agency under the umbrella of Health and Human Services, awarded the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants a contract to represent the children. USCRI in turn planned to subcontract with a social services firm that employed zero attorneys at the time.

I want you to read it all.  It is complicated, but oh so juicy!
Did USCRI get the contract because Negash was the head of ORR? Is this why Negash resigned so suddenly back in December of 2014? Shouldn’t there be a law that contractors cannot move in and out of government positions where they are in a position to award grants and contracts to their former bosses?
Where is Trey Gowdy (chairman of the committee responsible for refugees in the House of Representatives)?  Does he know about this? Is his committee investigating?
If you are as outraged as I am by the allegations raised in the Huffington Post story, please send the article to your member of Congress and US Senators and demand they get to the bottom of this because after all it is YOUR money!

Lobbying arm for refugee contractors holds press conference, wants 200,000 refugees and $2 billion in additional funding

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Before you read this article, please have a look at a recent post we wrote about the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) which was only a few months ago stumping for 65,000 Syrians.   It is a lobbying consortium of  supposedly non-profit groups posing as simply charitable humanitarian groups when in fact they are almost exclusively funded by federal tax dollars.

Negash and Bartlett
Eskinder Negash (right) resigned abruptly as Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in December 2014, an unexpected resignation that has still not been explained. Here with Lawrence Bartlett of the US State Dept. Bartlett will be in Twin Falls, Idaho this coming week to try to calm down the local pocket of resistance to Syrian resettlement in Magic Valley.

Their request for 200,000 refugees and an additional $2 billion in funding (the program costs us over $1 billion right now just for the resettlement of 70,000, not including the cost of welfare) is, to say the least, self serving!
The gang is all here!
From CNS News:

(CNSNews.com) – The former head of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement said on Friday that concerns about the security risk of bringing Syrian refugees into the U.S. given the terrorist presence in that country are based on “fear-mongering” and that the millions of people who are in the U.S. illegally did not undergo security screening used to vet asylum seekers.

“I can tell you that we have about 11 million undocumented people in this country I was told,” Eskinder Negash said at a press conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “I don’t believe they went through a security screening system.”

Huh? That is the most cockamamie logic I have ever heard.  We have unscreened illegal aliens in here by the millions (drug dealers, murderers, rapists and other criminals) and somehow we are then supposed to not be worried about unscreened Syrians when the FBI has already told us they can’t screen them?  We are fear-mongering?

Eric Schwartz
Schwartz: A few “bad actors” might get in, but we don’t worry about that when we are busy changing America by changing the people. LOL! He didn’t say the second part, but did dismiss concerns about “bad actors.”

By the way, Negash was a Vice President at the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants prior to running the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and we see he is now back at USCRI—the contractor/government revolving door on full display!  (There really should be a law!)

[….]

Negash and others who are part of the coalition of faith-based groups and refugee advocates held the press conference to announce that the Refugee Council USA is asking the president and Congress to increase the current cap for U.S. refugees admitted each year from 70,000 to 200,000 for fiscal year 2016, with 100,000 of those refugees coming from Syria.

And, here they have dragged ol’ Soros protege, Eric Schwartz off his perch as the Dean of the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the Univ. of Minnesota.   See our archive on Schwartz here, and especially this post.  For new readers, Schwartz preceded Anne Richard as Asst. Secretary of State (Richard also revolved into the State Dept. from a contractor job just as Negash did!)

Eric Schwartz, who was appointed the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration by Obama and served until 2011, said at the press conference that he and other former federal officials from several administrations signed onto a letter asking the Obama administration and Congress for that increase in the refugee cap and also $2 billion from Congress to pay for the more than double the number of refugees that would be admitted and resettled in the U.S.

There is more and I am out of time!  Go here to continue reading.
By the way, the RCUSA is being run by Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society these days.  The refugee industry gang is all here!