Tag: Gang of Eight

Lutheran refugee contractor cheers for Obama amnesty (no surprise!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have reported for years on how the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) headquartered in Baltimore, Maryland is one of the leading advocacy groups in the nation involved in the open borders political movement, so this is no surprise.

Before you read on, have a look at a recent Form 990 (page 9) for LIRS.  Their income from gifts, grants and contributions was $41,757,518 and $40,417,752 came from “government grants.”  That means that you, the American taxpayer, “contributed” 97% of their income. Check out their Baltimore digs and note that their income jumped $10 million from 2011 to 2012.

Obama gets a big smooch from LIRS! Linda Hartke, CEO of LIRS makes over $200,000 a year in salary and benefits (you, the American taxpayer, pay her salary) http://lirs.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Linda_Hartke_Bio.pdf

LIRS could not exist and be lobbying for amnesty if it wasn’t for the fact that you pay their salaries and overhead! Galling isn’t it?

One aspect of their enthusiasm for illegal aliens being granted permission to live and work here that I don’t get is this—they are charged with finding jobs for the refugees they resettle and there is no doubt that the Obama reprieve for millions of illegal aliens will put those “new Americans” in direct competition with job-hungry refugees for low-skilled jobs.  Doesn’t LIRS see that?

Here is LIRS cheering the President last Thursday….

From PR Newswire:

BALTIMORE, Nov. 20, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), and supporters all across America, welcome the significant steps taken today by the Obama Administration that invite our neighbors out of the shadows, bring greater hope and security in the place of fear and stabilize the lives of millions of immigrants living in the United States. The President’s historic announcement of new immigration policies brings hope to immigrant families, aids our communities in being places of welcome, and strengthens our nation by living out American values, and lifting up our economy.  These actions are grounded in our history as a nation that has been renewed and strengthened by each generation of newcomers.

The policies announced today reflect American values of justice and are an important step towards a more humane immigration system. It is our hope that the President’s demonstrated leadership will lead to Congressional action to rebuild an immigration system which further strengthens us as a nation and respects the rights and dignity of people who have come to the United States seeking refuge, family or the dignity of work and wages.

“Today, millions of lives have been changed for the better.  We must continue to lift up the American tradition of being a welcoming society that honors freedom, equality, and opportunity and values each and every person,” said Linda Hartke, LIRS President and CEO. “The President’s actions are a significant step in the right direction – promoting family unity and offering vital solutions for our economy and country.”

As a faith-based organization, LIRS has long advocated for an immigration system that encourages and supports keeping families together, and better protects children, migrants, refugees and other vulnerable persons. The President’s actions today are consistent with LIRS’s core principles of respect for human dignity and the biblical call to welcome the newcomer.

They go on to say they won’t be satisfied until they get the whole ball of wax—comprehensive immigration reform which they lobbied for in 2013.  Of course, we know that the Senate-passed S.744 had many goodies that will flow directly to LIRS and other refugee contractors.

There is contact information (see their press release). If you are a Lutheran who disagrees with what LIRS is doing in your name, you should contact them and let them know how you feel.

For those who want to learn more about LIRS, we have an extensive archive here.  For those following the Wyoming controversy, LIRS in Baltimore is the parent organization of Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, here (one of our top three posts over the last week).

LIRS is one of the top nine federal resettlement contractors.  Don’t be fooled by the fact that they call themselves Voluntary Agencies.  They are all almost completely funded by you, the American taxpayer.

Time magazine reports on federal migrant resettlement contractors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is a new day in America!  A major media outlet has dared mention the fact that quasi-government/quasi-religious agencies are reaping millions in government grants to care for “refugees” and the illegal alien children surging across our southern border.

[Editor: I realize that I can’t really refer to the contractors*** as refugee resettlement contractors anymore since they now resettle illegal aliens as well! I guess we will call them migrant resettlement contractors.]

And, by the way readers, resettlement (hooking them up with social services and health care, filing their citizenship paperwork etc.) is the job the contractors would have legally been paid to do for all migrants (the newly amnestied) through S.744 (the Gang of Eight amnesty bill) if it had made it to the President’s desk.  The contractors listed below all lobbied for S.744!

As regular readers of RRW, you know most of this about grant recipient big dogs—Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key—as well as the smaller federal contractors (by comparison!) the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, but the average America getting news from the dinosaur media does not!  Until now!

Here is Time (emphasis mine) in a story from last week entitled: This Baptist Charity Is Being Paid Hundreds of Millions to Shelter Child Migrants.

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley wants to be sure taxpayer money is not being misused. Go for it Senator!

In the late afternoon of July 9, Air Force One touched down at Love Field in Dallas. President Barack Obama ducked into a private room at the airport for a discussion about the crisis of undocumented children crossing the southwest border. Assembled around a wooden table were top Texas officials, including Governor Rick Perry and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, as well as the leaders of several faith-based charities. One of them was a man so anonymous, the White House pool report misspelled his name.

Kevin Dinnin is the CEO of a faith-based, nonprofit organization called BCFS, formerly known as Baptist Child and Family Services. This obscure charity has emerged as one of the biggest players in the federal government’s response to the influx of more than 57,000 unaccompanied children who have trudged across the southern border so far this year. It runs two of the largest facilities for temporarily housing immigrant children, as well as six permanent shelters in California and Texas. Since December, BCFS has received more than $280 million in federal grants to operate these shelters, according to government records. On July 7, two days before Dinnin met Obama in Dallas, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded BCFS $190,707,505 in a single grant.

Senator Grassley wants answers!

Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on July 17, requesting information about BCFS contracts to ensure that taxpayer money wasn’t being misused. “Despite being almost completely dependent on the public, BCFS has faced heavy criticism for attempting to avoid public scrutiny,” the Iowa Republican wrote. “This aversion to basic transparency is extremely disturbing.”

[….]

For BCFS executives, the work can be lucrative. According to federal tax records, Dinnin received nearly $450,000 in compensation in 2012. At least four other top officials earned more than $200,000. The median salary for the CEOs of nonprofit organizations like BCFS was about $285,000 in 2011, according to a 2013 survey by Charity Navigator.

Our old standbys, the Lutherans and Catholics get a mention:

The federal grant money for sheltering unaccompanied children, provided by HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, has so far totaled $671 million during the 2014 fiscal year. BCFS has received 40% of those funds, making it the largest recipient of money disbursed to contractors to temporarily house unaccompanied children until they can be reunited with family members or placed in foster care. Dozens of other organizations are involved in the effort, including Southwest Key Programs, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And then get this!  They say that the reason for the secrecy is that they fear—you (“clusters” of armed citizens they say!) protesting.  What they really fear is that protests will wake up the American people and more will figure out how they are being scammed out of their tax dollars not to mention that they will come to understand the level to which we are being invaded by the third world!

The level of secrecy surrounding the facilities is unusual, says Neil Gordon, an investigator for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight. But observers say it may be warranted. From Arizona to Michigan, clusters of citizens have held armed protests to oppose the relocation of undocumented children to facilities in their communities. “This situation is pretty unique in that they don’t want the mobs to come out and cause problems,” Gordon says. “That might be the reason they’re being so tight-lipped.”

Doesn’t that just tick you off!  “Observers say” (who the hell are the observers!).  Heck, I should start using that phrase!  I’ve got all sorts of “observers” with a lot to say!

There is much more, read it all and rejoice that the word is now reaching living rooms nationwide!

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (I suspect grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs  are now devouring all the federal cash):

Our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ goes back several years, click here for all of those posts.

All of Tennessee’s employment growth since 2000 has gone to immigrants

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We should have posted this news when it was hot earlier this week (thanks to all those who sent it), so you may already have seen it.  I would love to see a similar study by the Center for Immigration Studies of some other states with an even higher immigrant load then Tennessee.

We have written extensively on Tennessee (click here) where a ‘pocket of resistance’ continues to grow in Nashville (see our category devoted to posts on Nashville).

Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker both voted for the Senate’s Gang of Eight amnesty bill.

From the Center for Immigration Studies:

The Gang of Eight Senate immigration bill (S.744) passed last June would have roughly doubled the number of new foreign workers allowed into the country and legalized millions of illegal immigrants already in the United States. Both Tennessee senators — Lamar Alexander (R) and Bob Corker (R) — voted for it.

To put into context the possible effects of this legislation on Tennessee, the Center for Immigration Studies has analyzed recent government data on employment. The analysis shows that, since 2000, all of the net increase in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job in Tennessee has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). This is the case even though the native-born accounted for 60 percent of the growth in the state’s total working-age population.

 * The total number of working-age (16 to 65) immigrants (legal and illegal) holding a job in Tennessee increased by 94,000 from the first quarter of 2000 to the first quarter of 2014, while the number of working-age natives with a job declined by 47,000 over the same period.

 * The fact that all of the long-term net gain in employment among the working-age population went to immigrants is striking because natives accounted for 60 percent of the increase in the total size of the state’s working-age population.

  Read it all!

 

Vermont wants open-borders for Vermont, right Senator Leahy?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m really warming to the idea of a grassroots/media campaign to send more refugees to Vermont including those ‘unaccompanied alien minors’ surging at our border.

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy as he rolled into Washington in 1975. Come on Pat! It’s time to open the borders of “welcoming” Vermont to the “children!” Photo: http://bigstory.ap.org/photo/patrick-leahy-12

If you missed my post about two weeks ago about Vermont’s elected ‘leaders’ running their mouths about how we must be more “welcoming”and knowing that Vermont Senator Leahy has been a champion of refugee resettlement and a Senate leader for the passage of S.744 (the Gang of Eight’s amnesty bill), you know that Vermont must surely be the most “welcoming” state in the nation led by such a generous man.

Then how could this be?

I just checked the statistics for this fiscal year and Vermont has “welcomed” a paltry 228 refugees while 50,988 were resettled around the country.

Vermont! It is time to put up or shut up.

In response to my post yesterday on the Vermont “refugee” group sending illegal aliens across the border into Canada reader, ‘sodiumpen’ said this:

Interesting that the VI&AA shuffled the illegal immigrants, etc. out of Vermont into Canada. Guess they didn’t want to keep them in-state?!

Just think of all the ski area hotels, motels, ski lodges, etc. that are seasonally vacant. I’m sure they’d make great accommodations for all those illegal alien children – especially the older teens!

Another good reason to funnel more unaccompanied minors and illegals into Vermont is the state plans on beginning a single payer health plan in 2017:

“The state has a planned 2017 launch of the nation’s first universal healthcare system, a sort of modified Medicare-for-all that has long been a dream for many liberals.”
http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20131026/INFO/310269893

I’m sure all those liberal residents of Vermont will be glad to foot the healthcare bill for all of their new, incoming residents (instead of the non-Vermonters) – along with happily enabling & fulfilling the other liberal dreams of unfettered illegal immigration/open borders/amnesty.

Sounds like a win/win to me!

To me too!

Remember, earlier this year we reported on a document (key indicators) produced by the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS, that says the feds are looking for more “welcoming” sites and the availability of ‘free’ healthcare is one of the top criteria.  Vermont sounds like it is just the ticket!

As reader Jake said, let’s just call Vermont The Green Card State!

 

Congress flooded with calls today to stop the Obama amnesty

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update!  The Federation for American Immigration Reform has an action alert out tonight with more specific instructions for calling Congress as Speaker Boehner prepares a flawed bill for the House floor.  To learn more click here.

If you didn’t participate in melting the phone lines on Monday, it’s not too late—call your elected officials in Washington tomorrow.  If you miss tomorrow whack them on Wednesday!

Close the borders!  Stop the Obama amnesty! No more funding for illegal alien phony “refugees!” Do your job!  Pick your message, but let them know how you feel.  The US Capitol Switchboard number is this:   (202) 224-3121.

See our post Saturday and here is the latest report from Breitbart on the Monday melt!

Senator Jeff Sessions: “They will get louder in the coming days.”

The American people have risen up in response to a rallying cry from Sens. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), overloading the phone lines on Capitol Hill to pressure their members of Congress to fight against President Obama’s planned executive amnesty for millions of illegal aliens.

“I was on hold with the Capitol Hill switchboard about a minute or so each time I called my Representative and my two Senators,” Catharine Trauernicht, a Tea Party activist in Virginia, told Breitbart News Monday. “Typically, my calls are answered right away, but I always know that citizens have sprung into action when the switchboard recording comes on and says, ‘All of our operators are assisting other callers at this time.’”

When called by Breitbart News Monday at about 1:30 p.m., the Capitol Hill switchboard line was similarly busy.

“This shows the American people are going to resist,” a Sessions aide told Breitbart News. “The crescendo will grow. They are only beginning to be heard. They will get louder in the coming days.”

The calls are coming in response to Sen. Sessions, who last week asked the American people to rise up and pressure their elected leaders to stop the president from moving forward with any new executive amnesty. Obama has already granted executive amnesty to upwards of 800,000 illegal aliens through the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program which was initiated in 2012, and this year Obama is threatening to expand DACA to five to six million illegal aliens.

“The American people have begged and pleaded for years for our laws to be enforced,” Sessions said in his statement calling for the American people to rise up. 

More here….

Last spring and summer, Senator Jeff Sessions was the leading voice in opposition to the infamous “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill ultimately passed by the Senate.  Here we especially made note when he called-out the meatpackers who lobby for cheap immigrant labor.  They are especially interested in refugees—subsidized by your tax dollars.