You might want to check out Juicy Ecumenism a blog at The Institute on Religion and Democracy on the issue of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops receiving millions of tax dollars every year to resettle refugees. I wasn’t familiar with it, but blogger Marjorie Jeffrey cites RRW and pulls in other information about the USCCB pushing the Gang of Eight bill (S.744) through Congress. A lively discussion follows in the comment section.
You might want to join the discussion!
Our extensive archive on the USCCB and its entanglement with the US government and dependence on taxpayer dollars is here.
This story is a couple of days old, so it’s possible the Lefties have already killed the sign project.
I have to laugh when I think of Presidential candidate Romney suggesting illegal aliens in the US “self-deport” and the American media went nuts on him.
This dramatic measure in the UK shows how serious a problem illegal (and legal!) migration to the UK has become because, as a member state of the EU, they are not completely free to close their borders or to reject asylum seekers.
Mobile billboards calling on illegal immigrants to leave the UK have been criticized as a step too far by politicians. Campaign backers have hailed the initiative as an “alternative to arrest,” while critics decry the adverts as outright “intimidation.”
As part of a pilot scheme to help reduce illegal immigration in Britain, vans with billboards emblazoned with the slogan “Go home or face arrest” will be driven around London boroughs.
Read it all and watch the video.
Meanwhile in the US we have the Obama Administration, the Gang of Eight, and the refugee contractorsall pushing to open US borders to illegal aliens even wider!
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 summaryby 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 Shariaagain 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]
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.”
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.
Editors note: Mike is a reader (mikefromlongisland) who commented extensively, here, in the last few days about why and how the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (a 501(c)3 charitable organization) could be lobbying on bills before Congress. (Imagine your local Tea Party doing such a thing with a 501(c)3 designation—but oops! Tea Parties aren’t being granted any type of tax-deductible status).
Do all of you Lutherans out there agree with what is being done in the name of your faith?
These are hardcore open borders advocates pushing for more Afghans and Iraqis to be admitted to the US. This disingenuous article in the Army Times quotes ADVOCATES (aka LOBBYISTS) for two federal refugee resettlement contractors lobbying hard for passage of S.744—Comprehensive Immigration Reform. (Our archive on the legislative train wreck is here)
Nevermind that they will financially benefit greatly from passage of the Gang of Eight plus Grover bill should it become law. Their beef this time is that Special Immigrant Visas will be in jeopardy if this bill isn’t passed pronto.
Meeting with Advocates for Immigrants Pictured in the photo surrounding Congresswoman Roybal-Allard who is seated, from left to right: Brittney Nystrom (Director of Policy and Legal Affairs, National Immigration Forum), now a lobbyist for LIRS.
Remember, the Special Immigrant Visas law for those who “helped” America in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was inserted into a Defense Authorization bill in the dark of night. Now, it is up for renewal and its extension was slipped into S. 744 (once again no hearings on it).
Maybe before you read the Lutherans view of the Special Immigrant Visa provision in S.744, check out a different view at World Net Dailyby Aaron Klein.
Here then is the Army Times(reprinted from Medill News Service). First they seek to scare readers that some poor translator is going to be beheaded in Iraq or Afghanistan if this program goes away (keep in mind they have had since 2008 to apply):
A law providing special visas to Iraqi and Afghan nationals in danger for helping the U.S. military suffered a blow when the House rejected the Senate’s immigration reform bill Wednesday.
Many of the refugees and their families face grave threats in their homelands as a result of their U.S. government affiliation, and thousands have been killed by their own countrymen, advocacy groups say.
In 2008, Congress passed legislation providing Iraqi and Afghan refugees who assisted the U.S. with special immigrant visas. This included contractors, translators and guides. The 5,000 visas allotted annually to Iraqis are set to expire at the end of September, while the 1,500 visas allotted annually to Afghans will expire in September 2014. The immigration bill would make the visas available until September 2018.
Only 50 special visas are allotted annually for Iraqi and Afghan translators. But in fiscal 2007 and 2008, an amendment to the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act allotted 500 visas for translators.
From fiscal year 2008 to March 2013, 11,647 visas have been allotted to Iraqi and Afghan refugees and 1,693 to translators, according to State Department data.
Director of Advocacy=lobbyist!
Those who benefit from the visas are in immediate danger, said Brittany Nystrom, director of advocacy at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
With the immigration reform bill stalled, advocacy efforts have focused on pushing through the visa provision by other means, Nystrom said.
The provision has also been attached to the Senate and House’s National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2014.
Apparently, before taking the lobbying job for the Lutherans, Nystrom lobbied on immigration for the pro-open borders group —National Immigration Forum headed by Ali Noorani. (See photo from the Congresswoman’s website) We told you about Grover Norquist’s special pal Ali Noorani here in February.
Lavinia Limon of USCRI (one of nine federal refugee contractors). Fox News Latino photo.
And, of course we would expect Ms. Limon to show up in this story. Now head of a federal refugee contractor, she was Clinton’s director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (the revolving door!). Here is one of many posts on the lobbying Limon. And, here she says hire a refugee rather than an American!
The Army Timesstory continues:
The versions differ slightly in eligibility and the number of visas allotted, but the major difference in the authorization bill is that visas for Iraqis are only extended to 2014, said Lavina Limon, president and CEO of U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.
She said she hopes the version on the immigration reform bill will pass because there are fewer restrictions and the visas would be extended until 2018 rather than 2014 for Iraqis, although she said she is not optimistic.
While there is general agreement that the Iraqis and Afghans, who have provided invaluable support to the U.S., deserve retribution, the program needs a lot of work, she said.
We have no lobbyist in Washington!
Those of us who want to see reform of refugee resettlement, perhaps even a halt to this whole Refugee Resettlement Program have no one in Washington pressing our interests. Some of the big immigration restriction groups touch on refugee issues from time to time, but really there is no one to counter the huge resources of the contractors who can hire lawyer/lobbyists like Nystrom. Adding insult to injury—you are paying Nystrom’s salary!
Have a look at a recent Form 990for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, page 9. They had income in that year of $31,653,748 and, of that, you, the taxpayers of America, gave them $30,376,568. Their CEO* makes $204,186 in salary and benefits.
96% of their funding comes from you. No taxpayer funding=No LIRS!
All of the Democrats agreed with the special interests looking for cheap labor and 14 Republicans joined them. Why? They were bought, plain and simple. See vote on final passage here.
Thirty two Republicans realized that legalizing 11 million aliens spells the end for America as we know it—not to mention the end of the Republican Party (if you care!).
The 14 Republicans who should now be targeted for removal from office when they run again are: Alexander (TN), Ayotte (NH), Chiesa (NJ), Collins (ME), Corker (TN), Flake (AZ), Graham (SC), Hatch (UT), Heller (NV), Hoeven (ND), Kirk (IL), McCain (AZ), Murkowski (AK), and of course Rubio (FL). And, from now on give them hell when they are home in their states! (See RedState on the stories they told, here)
***Update! *** See Gateway Pundit for ‘Dump the Amnesty 14 in 2014’, here.
Senator Jeff Sessions names names!
Be sure to watch Sessions floor speech by clicking here, in which the great defender of the rule of law and our American history and culture describes who the “masters of the universe” and the “powerful special interests” are behind this monstrosity. S.744 is not a bill to be kind to immigrants, it’s a bill to benefit powerful forces mostly seeking cheap and readily available labor, or political advancement for their corporatist government agenda. LaRaza is in it for the Leftwing voters.
Sessions names the following as those special interests meeting behind closed doors and pulling the strings of the Gang of Eight:
Richard Trumpka, AFL-CIO
Tom Donohue, Chamber of Commerce
Agribusiness
LaRaza
Hi-tech Billionaires
Immigration Lawyers Association, and get this!
MEAT PACKERS!
He named meat packers! (at just about 3 minutes). Further confirmation of my theory! For regular readers of RRW you will understand the significance of this. We have maintained all along that some in the US State Department and others in the refugee industry are really out scouting for captive refugee labor to supply the meat packing industry (and other industries) all the while justifying what they do with pontification about their humanitarian mission.
Here is Sessions press statement today—-This bill should never become law:
WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued the following statement after the Senate passage of the immigration bill:
“Sponsors of this legislation—despite the array of financial, establishment and special interest support—failed to hit their target of 70 votes. The more people learned about the bill the more uneasy they became. Failure to reach 70 votes is significant, and ensures the House has plenty of space to chart an opposite course and reject this fatally flawed proposal.
So while the bill passed the Senate, this is just the beginning.
The legislation adopted today guarantees three things: immediate amnesty before security, permanent future illegal immigration, and a record surge in legal immigration that will reduce wages and increase unemployment.
There will be no border fence, no border surge, nothing but the same tired illusory promises of future enforcement that will never occur. Americans have begged and pleaded time and again for Congress to end the lawlessness. But this amnesty-first bill is a surrender to lawlessness. As ICE and USCIS officers have warned, it will decimate immigration enforcement and erode the constitutional rule of law upon which our national greatness depends. And it remains unfair to the legal immigrants who put enormous time and expense into following the rules our nation has established.
This legislation demonstrates that the governing body in Washington has become severed from the people it is supposed to represent. It is a broken promise 1,200 pages long.
The Senate’s loyalty must be to the American people—immigrant and native-born alike—who work hard, pay their taxes, fight our wars, and obey our laws. 21 million Americans cannot find full-time work. Medium household income is almost ten percent lower today than it was in 1999. But this proposal would double the number of guest workers for businesses and provide permanent legal status to more than 30 million mostly-lower skill legal immigrants in the next ten years. This huge increase in the legal immigration flow will reduce wages and raise unemployment, and displace those who have suffered the most economically. As wise observers have said, we are a nation with an economy—not an economy with a nation.
We can create a lawful immigration system that makes us proud. But for that to happen, this bill must never become law. We must return to the drawing board and produce legislation that serves the just and legitimate interests of the nation, its people, and all who wish to call America home.”
