Up next! Niagara Falls to become 'welcoming' refugee resettlement site

We learned months ago that the US State Department had been secretly assessing the feasibility of 47 new sites in which to place some of Obama’s last wish—110,000 refugees for America in FY2017.
Those 47 would presumably be in addition to the 110-200 listed here. (oops! The State Department’s Refugee Processing Center has taken down some of the handiest links we could previously access. Sure hope it is just temporary and not a further effort to keep information from the general public.)

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Seneca Niagara Casino needs workers, so Niagara Falls will get a refugee office. Starting wages must be too low to attract Americans! I wonder who owns this Casino? No time to find out right now….

Because there is no published list of new sites we can only assume that is because the federal government and its contractors do not want to tip off any citizens who might object.
We have been listing all those we learn about (see list below).
But here is the latest news on Niagara Falls from Buffalo News.
The Jewish resettlement contractor says there are jobs there for refugees—what as waiters, maids and janitors in hotels catering to tourists?

As many as 50 refugees from one of the world’s troubled spots are likely to resettle in Niagara Falls next year as Jewish Family Service of Buffalo and Erie County expands its services northward. [It is just the beginning, the numbers will increase each year and there is no stopping it once a contractor has set up shop.—ed]

The U.S. State Department recently approved Jewish Family Service’s application to begin refugee resettlement in the Cataract City [nickname—ed], said Marlene A. Schillinger, the local group’s president and CEO.

Jewish Family Service will be the first refugee resettlement agency working in Niagara Falls, and Schillinger said it makes sense to do so.

“There’s capacity for this in Niagara Falls,” she said. “There are employment opportunities.”

Many refugees who have resettled in Buffalo have taken jobs at the Seneca Niagara Casino, and Jewish Family Service hopes some of the new arrivals who settle in Niagara Falls will do the same.

Jewish Family Service has been working with Niagara Falls Mayor Paul Dyster and the Niagara Falls School District to prepare for the refugees’ arrival.

“You can’t just plop people down there,” said Peter Scott, career services program manager at Jewish Family Service, who will supervise the new operation.

They say the community is all fine with it! Does the community even know?

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Democrat Mayor Paul Dyster supports the arrival of the federal refugee resettlement program to Niagara Falls. See his bio here: http://www.dyster.com/

And despite fears that refugees from Syria might be a terror threat, “we have not had any pushback from the community,” Scott said. “And there’s certainly an economic benefit.”

Dyster could not be reached for comment, but Schillinger and Scott said the mayor has been supportive, hoping a refugee influx in Niagara Falls could revitalize neighborhoods and stem falling population, just as it has in Buffalo.

[….]

Fewer refugees have arrived in America recently from Burma, the destination that has been the source of a majority of Buffalo’s refugee influx in the past 15 years. But Burma remains one of the top five home countries for refugees moving to the U.S., along with the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Syria, Iraq and Somalia.

One thing the good citizens can be sure of is that the refugees will most likely be Muslims from Iraq, Syria and Somalia.  Even with the Burmese, large numbers now arriving are Burmese Muslims (which won’t make the Burmese Christians living there very happy!).  Just so you know, only a handful from DR Congo are Muslims.  However, Niagara Falls officials need to know they will get a mix of refugees and they don’t get to choose their favorite ethnic groups.
You should know that this Jewish agency is a subcontractor of the major federal resettlement contractor Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

New sites!

Here are some of the new sites being chosen by the US State Department (that we know of!).  We are adding Niagara Falls, NY. If anyone there is interested in learning more, check out our ‘Ten Things Your Town Needs to Know‘ by clicking here.
Asheville, NC
Rutland, VT
Reno, NV
Ithaca, NY
Missoula, MT
Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted as a primary resettlement site!)
Charleston, WV (expansion of what was a very small program)
Fayetteville, AR
Blacksburg, VA
Pittsfield, MA
Northhampton, MA
Flint, MI
Bloomington, IN
Traverse City, MI
Poughkeepsie, NY
Wilmington, DE
Watertown, NY (maybe)
Youngstown, OH (maybe)
Storm Lake, Iowa
Niagara Falls, NY

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society lectures Trump; never mentions its pecuniary interest in refugees

This is one more in my continuing update and review of the financial positions of the nine major federal refugee resettlement contractors.
Here we have HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield admonishing Donald Trump on the day after his big win last Tuesday. I might respect the resettlement contractors a bit if they would make it clear somewhere, sometime, that they have a vested financial interest in the resettlement of refugees rather than this usual holier-than-thou pontification.  LOL! maybe there should be a little disclaimer at the end of all media references to them—“This organization is paid by the taxpayers of America to place refugees in towns and cities in 49 states.”

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CEO Mark Hetfield is pulling down a salary package worth $336,323 running this ‘charity.’ http://www.give.org/charity-reviews/national/human-services/hias-in-silver-spring-md-19163

So far I’ve updated our older financial information on USCRI, LIRS, World Relief, and Church World Service.
USCRI is here (97% funded by taxpayers).
LIRS here (95% funded by taxpayers).
World Relief here (73% funded by taxpayers).
Church World Service here (64% funded by taxpayers).
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is up next.
And, btw, HIAS was given a huge grant a few years ago to study the growing opposition to the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and mentioned RRW as a site that should be investigated by the Southern Poverty Law Center which did just that, see here.
Headquartered in Silver Spring,MD, HIAS had an income in 2014 of $36,161,323 according to this Charity Report. Their website is here.
This is how their income breaks down.  The way I see it, they are 56% funded by you, the taxpayer, which is the best of the contractors so far as some are above the 90% taxpayer funded level. (The service fee and operating grants below might be tax dollars too, but will give them the benefit of the doubt. The Migrant loan fee is definitely your money).
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From full report here: http://www.give.org/charity-reviews/national/human-services/hias-in-silver-spring-md-19163

You can check out their Form 990 for that year as well by clicking here.
riva-silverman
Riva Silverman ($250,000)

You will see on page 9 that in addition to CEO Hetfield, they have 9 other staffers making in excess of $100,000 at the top of a paid staff of 76! Why does Riva make so much $$$? And, where is Melanie?  As I have said many times before. If these were truly private charitable non-profits and not quasi-government organizations I wouldn’t care what they chose to pay their staff, but since we fund them, we have every right to publish and question their salaries.
Here are some of the places HIAS works:

Affiliates

Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency
Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services
HIAS New York
HIAS Pennsylvania
Jewish Child and Family Services (Chicago)
Jewish Community Services (Baltimore)
Jewish Family and Children’s Services of Pittsburgh
Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco –
Jewish Family and Children’s Services of the East Bay
Jewish Family Service of Buffalo and Erie County
Jewish Family Service of Greater Seattle
Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles
Jewish Family Service of Metrowest
Jewish Family Service of San Diego
Jewish Family Service of Washtenaw County
Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts
Jewish Family Services of the Silicon Valley
Jewish Vocational Service of MetroWest New Jersey
US Together

HIAS was very involved in lobbying for the ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty bill a few years ago in the Senate.  Still don’t understand why a group resettling legal refugees in search of jobs would want to make it even harder for their refugee clients when they must compete with mostly Hispanic laborers for low skilled jobs.
And, one final thing. It was HIAS that went crazy going after Donald Trump Jr. about likening a decision to take in not properly screened refugees to being told that one skittles candy in a handful was poisoned and asked if you would thus eat any. See what I mean—google HIAS and Skittles.
Our complete archive on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is here.

Lobbying arm for refugee resettlement contractors wants US to take 200,000 refugees in FY2017

We have written often about the consortium of members of the refugee resettlement industry calling themselves the Refugee Council USA (RCUSA).  Go here for our archive on the group which includes the nine major federal resettlement contractors.
Thanks to reader Joanne for sending this recent statement from their Washington, DC office. They are, needless to say, thrilled that the Obama Administration is going to host a big pow-wow on refugees at the UN in September. (I hope Trump’s people are getting ready for this huge propaganda stunt!)

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Melanie Nezer of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (one of nine federal contractors) is the present chair of RCUSA. She says 200,000 is the magic number for 2017.

As you read through this statement, remember that, in recent years, 70,000 was the target number for the refugees to be admitted to the US (from all countries).  In FY2016, Obama is shooting for 85,000 and then he signaled he wanted 100,000 in FY2017 (begins October 1, 2016).  (Yes, he has one more shot at dictating how many we take.)
If re-elected will Speaker Paul Ryan do a thing to stop the funding for this huge new number? Based on recent statements and last year’s actions, that is doubtful!

The Refugee Council USA is urging Obama to go for 200,000 (from all countries) for FY2017!

Refugee Council USA (RCUSA), a coalition of 20 U.S.-based non-governmental organizations dedicated to refugee protection, welcome, and excellence in the U.S. refugee resettlement program, commends the Obama Administration for coordinating the Leaders’ Summit on Refugees that will take place on September 20, 2016.

The Leaders’ Summit, as well as the UN General Assembly Summit on Large Movements of Migrants and Refugees on September 19th, are both critical opportunities for the U.S. and other members of the global community to show collective leadership by taking concrete steps to address the tremendous refugee protection needs that exist around the world, including right here in the Americas. This leadership must be demonstrated through concrete new commitments to expand and strengthen humanitarian assistance to refugees and the host countries carrying a disproportionate responsibility for them. But leadership also means demonstrating a resounding rejection of xenophobic and racist rhetoric that increasingly dominates global discourse around refugees today.

Yikes! So the US won’t be embarrassed in September, they want Obama to propose that 200,000 refugees be admitted to US beginning in October!  And, they want more $$$ for “services.”

The U.S. should commit to provide protection to 200,000 refugees through admission to the United States in FY17 through a combination of traditional refugee resettlement and additional legal, proven and secure approaches. At least 140,000 of these refugees should be resettled through the existing U.S. refugee resettlement program, with the necessary support for receiving and integrating them in American communities. To do any less would represent a U.S. commitment that falls short of the call made by the White House for a collective doubling of resettlement commitments in advance of the Summits.

The United States should also ensure that there is a commensurate increase in the social services and integration support [read TAXPAYER dollars!—ed] that are available to refugees as they start their new lives in this country.

 In addition to higher numbers, the U.S. should also demonstrate a commitment to a more equitable distribution of resettlement opportunities, ensuring that refugees in desperate circumstances everywhere have a chance of accessing this life-saving program.

Go here to read more.
And, remember readers, they NEVER quit!  It is all about changing America by changing the people! So, we can never quit exposing the facts and their real agenda either!

Refugee Protection Act of 2016 introduced by Vermont Senator Leahy

It is probably the same old bill he has been trying to get passed for years.  I didn’t bother looking at it.  The point I want to make here is this—the Open Borders Left never gives up!  There is no way this bill will go anywhere this year in the waning months of an election year, but this sort of thing is done because they constantly push and they constantly gin up their grassroots by doing ‘show’ bills like this.

patrick Leahy
Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy one of the most important Senators pushing for MORE and MORE refugees to be admitted to the US.

Editor: By the way, I am traveling as I mentioned here. I am really hoping to continue posting from the road, however, at least this hotel in this city has a lousy internet connection (I’ll probably lose this connection 5 times before I finish this post)!
Here is a bit of information from Human Rights First about the bill introduced by Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont and Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California:

New York City—Human Rights First urges members of Congress to support the Refugee Protection Act of 2016, a bill that reaffirms the United States’ commitment to refugees and strengthens legal safeguards for those seeking protection from persecution and violence. The organization applauds Senator Leahy and Representative Lofgren for their leadership on this bill and for their commitment to the America’s legacy as a haven for refugees.

[….]

The bill would improve the efficiency, fairness and effectiveness of the U.S. asylum and resettlement processes, and strengthen protection for refugees. U.S. global leadership on the protection of refugees is crucial, as demonstrated by President Obama’s decision to host a world Leaders’ Summit on Refugees on September 20, and the U.S. asylum and resettlement systems should be a model for other countries. The Refugee Protection Act of 2016 fixes many of the areas in which U.S. laws and policies are not living up to the standards the United States has set for itself and, by extension, the bar it sets for the rest of the world.

Then this is my favorite in a list of things the bill would do, revealing I believe the Achilles heel of  the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program—refugees are not finding jobs and economically helping communities, but are in fact a drain wherever they are placed.  This is probably a provision to send more of your $$$ to the resettlement contractors to distribute to the refugees (I didn’t bother to look it up!):

Safeguards newly arrived refugees from slipping into poverty and supports local communities.

Continue reading here for more of what Human Rights First has to say.

melanie nezer
HIAS’ Melanie Nezer is telling her people to write to Congress now.

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (one of the nine major federal refugee contractors) is telling its members to write to their representatives in Washington and say this (they gotta keep their members believing that they are working for them in Washington):

I write to urge you to cosponsor the Refugee Protection Act (HR 5851/S 3241).

This legislation would provide critical protections for refugees and asylum seekers in the United States. It would ensure due process for refugees and asylum seekers, simplify asylum procedures, keep more refugee families together, protect refugee children, and modernize our refugee resettlement program.

The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is a critical tool for achieving our humanitarian goals, promoting our economic interests, and enhancing our national security. Refugees selected for resettlement to the U.S. have been thoroughly vetted by our national security agencies and arrive in the U.S. wanting the same things we all want — peace, safety, and opportunities for themselves and their children.

As a nation with a long legacy of welcoming refugees, it is critical that we have the best procedures and tools for helping the world’s most vulnerable victims of violence. Resettlement — to the U.S. or anywhere else — is often the last resort for refugees who may never be able to return to their home countries or have any access to a productive future in the country to which they first fled.

As your constituent, I urge you to use your voice to stand up for refugees by co-sponsoring the Refugee Protection Act and opposing any legislation that would undermine our Jewish and American values of welcoming the stranger and protecting refugees.

Of course I’m telling you all this with a chuckle, but if Hillary is elected, this won’t be a laughing matter.  Bills like this could get through to her desk!
And, again, that is because they (the Open Borders Left) never gives up, they agitate and they agitate, day after day and year after year!
Note to angry Rutland residents: If you want to stop the madness help get rid of your old man in the Senate and help us all!

Comment worth noting: '7delta' answers Hetfield of HIAS, Inc.

Not intentionally though…..
Editor: Yesterday while I was away in Washington, DC, ‘7delta’ left an important comment to my post of two days ago about the legislation making its way through the South Carolina legislature, read about it here, that would among other things make the Volags (the federal refugee contractors) responsible for any criminal activity any of their ‘clients’ might be responsible for in the state.
The ‘religious’ federal refugee contractors are screaming bloody murder saying that such a RESPONSIBILITY for their charges (their refugee clients) abridges their (the Volags) religious freedom.

Hias and Hetfield
Hetfield never mentions to readers of the Washington Post that his organization receives millions of your tax dollars every year to place refugees in your towns in a process completely lacking in transparency. The WaPo does its readers a great disservice by not adding such a disclaimer.

It was really no surprise to see that Mark Hetfield, the President of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, penned an op-ed on this very subject in the Washington Post (which I read in the train station yesterday).
By the way, a few years ago the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society dropped the word ‘Hebrew’ from its name and is now HIAS, Inc. I’m speculating that perhaps the many Muslim refugees they resettle now might have objected to the ‘Hebrew’ word, or it is meant to reflect the fact that the UN/US isn’t resettling Jews and the organization wanted to remain relevant (and able to collect your tax dollars for their ‘religious charitable work.’).
Here is just one paragraph of the Hetfield WaPo defense (LOL! they are on the defense in many ‘pockets of resistance’ these days).

As the shocking rise in anti-Muslim bigotry collides with increasing concern about terrorism at home and abroad, legislation attacking refugees has spread rapidly spread across the country. But South Carolina’s bill could set a unique and dangerous precedent. If South Carolina passes this disastrous legislation, it risks not only endangering those seeking refuge on our shores and tarnishing our country’s proud tradition of assisting those forced to flee their homes, but also jeopardizing the promise of religious freedom that is the core of American civic life.

Continue reading here.
Note how deceptively Hetfield writes, this bill doesn’t ‘attack’ refugees, it places responsibility for them on Hetfield (as a contractor) and he doesn’t like that one bit.
‘7delta’s’ timely comment works very well to answer Hetfield, but before you read it, I need to mention another comment to the same post from a reader identified as ‘o’reilly.’  This made me laugh:

I don’t know why the agencies would object to this provision. They constantly brag about the layers and layers of checks that are done before bringing the “refugees” to the U.S.

If they don’t have faith in those checks, why should we?

Here then is ‘7delta’ inadvertently answering Hetfield (I’m grateful for people like ‘7delta’ who do such thoughtful, careful work which I don’t have the patience to do!) in a response to another reader ‘Conprof’ who said:

Thank you to our brave SC Senator Kevin Bryant a legislator who understands the U.S. Constitution and what it means to have religious freedom; it does not mean one can do anything and everything, no matter how dangerous, ill-advised, exploitive, or illegal, in the name of religion.

(Edited from the original only by adding paragraph breaks and highlighting important points)
 

The Constitution isn’t a suicide pact. SCOTUS ruled early on in this country’s history that religious claims did not exempt any person or group from having to abide by our laws and to assimilate into our culture.

There is no right or Constitutional protection to be detrimental or harm another person or their rights, or to undermine society or the government, morally or physically. No human or animal sacrifices, polygamy, patricide, etc….or honor killings, beheadings, mass murder in the name of any god or coercion, threats, whining about discrimination for being required to abide by our laws or making false claims about objections to their laws being forced by legislative means, treaty or acquiescence as being hate or phobic, or the use of violence to force us (non-believers) to accept and abide by their political religious laws that are contrary to ours.

Of course, the SCOTUS ruling was not addressing government misusing religion as a means to cause its version of harm, AKA fundamental transformation, but the principles remain the same. In this case, SCOTUS was correct.

However, the whole narrative and practice about the separation of church and state has been abusive and unconstitutional since SCOTUS misrepresented it in the 1960’s to remove prayer from schools. As a co-equal branch of the federal government, it did exactly what it claimed to correct; it interfered with the individual’s 1st Amendment protections by placing the federal government in the position to arbitrate exactly what it is expressly prohibited from doing in the 1st Amendment, as well as usurping the sovereignty of States to determine its own laws and practices that are not reserved to the limited authorities granted to the federal government.

As for the religious volags claiming their 1st Amendment rights are being violated, their claims are in complete opposition to what the Bible says about the responsibilities of the individual, the body of the church and the government.

Their pretzel logic must take some serious twisting of God and reality for them to reach the conclusion that God meant they should engage in a lucrative enterprise that invites in a belief system that is the antitheses of Christianity and other religious disciplines, eliminates their right to “share the Gospel”, rejects man’s unalienable rights, has no concept of free will, and whose main obligation is to force all others into submission to its political laws, veiled as a religion, or to operate a “charity” as a business, not aided voluntarily by individuals, but well funded from the government treasury, an authority that is neither morally or Constitutionally possessed by the central government.

I’m afraid these religious people have it backwards. They are aiding and abetting subversive operatives within a corrupt government and the foreign agents of chaos certain aspects of western governments are using, yes using, to bring about the carnage and fear necessary to usher in a new governmental system the subversives are ready to implement.

To be clear, that’s overthrowing the government, no matter how much they soft soap it or tell us it’s for our protection. These religious people are infringing on ALL Americans’ rights, aiding and abetting government lawlessness, subversion and treason, and in the process, destroying their own rights. They are complicit in the inevitable and calculated destruction of the people who adhere to this antithetical belief system they are bringing here too, since these people are pawns, dispensable, easily manipulated pawns, due to their supremacist beliefs and singularly focused plan “to destroy the west by our own miserable hands and theirs”.

Because of the adherents obligation to use deceit to advance their cause and their self-serving focus, they are, by all appearances, unquestioning about why they are being allowed to advance. Neither do they appear capable of discerning the deceit manipulating them. These “refugees” will not win their battle..it won’t and can’t be allowed by the very people who are using them to secure their own power. The blood of the small numbers of forced-adherents who may genuinely want an escape from the horrors this foreign political system inflicts on them in their native country will also be on the hands of these volags, as will the the blood of all Americans and all others who are, and will be, victims of the religious volag’s “compassion.” Men and women of God? Whom do they really serve? It’s certainly not the God of the Bible.

There was a time when atheists and other belief systems in the U.S. understood the importance of the Christian belief of Natural Law and the freedoms it protected through the Rule of Law. They supported it, because it protected their right to not be forced into a state religion or to be persecuted by the force of law a state religion creates. They were even protective of the fact this country operated under the Christian philosophy of free will and personal liberty. It was in their best interest. Many probably still get it to various degrees. However, the “activists” today are willingly, ignorantly and loudly cutting off their own noses to spite their faces and are, oddly enough, onboard with bringing in a belief system that will do it for them, without exception. And now, we have errant Christians aiding all the subversives, whether they realize it or not.

Maybe these Christians would like to revisit the scriptures about “the falling away of churches” and what the Bible says about errant doctrine. Ignorance of man’s and God’s law is no excuse. Ignorance of evil isn’t either. Good intentions pave the road to hell when the drivers don’t bother with reading the road map accurately. Claims of religious motivation will not protect them from the consequences of their own actions. They have to decide which is more important, man’s errant judgment about speaking and knowing the truth or God’s judgment for not knowing or abiding by His truth.

Sorry for the length, but this whole “religious” angle from both government and the volags really annoys me. If I can research original documents and sources to learn the truth, so can they. Heck, I’ll even save them time by pointing them to official sources, so they don’t have to sift through thousands and thousands of sources like I did. They have no excuse for not knowing. They are responsible.

For more Comments worth noting/guest posts visit our special category by clicking here.  Other comments from reader ‘7delta’ may be found here.
HIAS is responsible for a report that recommended we (RRW and anyone else in “pockets of resistance” like this one in SC) be subjected to an investigation by the Southern Poverty Law Center.