The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society isone of nine federal contractors (paid by the head to resettle refugees) and is pushing for the admission of 100,000Syrian Muslims to the USbefore Obama leaves office.
So why is the Weekly Standard simply parroting what HIAS says, here at its blog? There is not one critical mention of who and what HIAS is!
Sometimes I want to scream! As more of the Washington insiders and smart people (LOL!) pay attention to the Refugee Admissions Program of the UN/US State Department, more ignorance is demonstrated. It is so scary to think these are the people who are helping to set immigration policy for America.
For our extensive archive on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society,go here. Update: Check it out! HIAS (crows!) tweets Weekly Standard.
Of course this is no surprise to long-time readers, but it is one of the first strong criticisms I’ve seen of Obama who has been the darling of the one-worlders of the No Borders American Hard Left. Back in 2007, there was no reluctance to excoriateGeorge W. Bush when he was going cautiously on admitting Iraqi Muslims to the US.
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two U.S. Jewish organizations said the Obama administration’s offer to absorb at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the next year was inadequate.
“Increasing the total number of refugees from 70,000 to 85,000 for next year and to 100,000 for the year after is a nice symbolic gesture,” Mark Hetfield, the president of HIAS, a Jewish group that assists in refugee resettlement and advocates for immigration reform, said Sunday in a statement. “It is a baby step in the right direction. But it is not leadership.”
The Reform movement also said in a statement Monday that Secretary of State John Kerry’s proposed numbers did not meet the mark.
See all of our coverage of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, here. Go here to see if HIAS is working in your city. If one is near you, call the office and ask how many Syrian Muslims they are bringing to your community. Ask them point blank if they will advocate for the persecuted Christians first!
Our huge archive on Syrian refugees is here. *** Have a look at the most recent Form 990 for HIAS (which re-branded itself and dropped the word Hebrew from its name awhile back). It is a $31 million dollar a year supposed ‘non-profit’ group that receives 55% of its funding from the US taxpayer. Federal grants total just over $16 million and that is to resettle refugees! And they receive other funds related to their refugee resettlement efforts including over $500,000 in processing fees for loans (refugee air fare loan collections). Hetfield pulls down a salary (and related income) of just over $300,000 per year and there are 5 other employees in the six-figure range.
I think my head is going to explode!
Why do big news outlets like the Washington Post republish such biased news from lazy reporters?
Here is an article written by Jacob Wirtschafter for Religion News Service (whatever that is) and published at the Washington Postthat leaves one very large piece of the story unreported. And, that is that HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), as one of nine major federal resettlement contractors, has a financial stake in the decision to admit large numbers of Syrian (mostly Muslim) refugees.
More than half of their $31 million dollar budget*** is from the federal government (you!) which pays them (BY THE HEAD) to resettle refugees.
They have every incentive to increase the number! HIAS doesn’t focus attention on persecuted Jews and Christians/other minorities as a first priority, they help bring Somali, Iraqi and soon Syrian Muslims to your towns and cities. And, how dare CEO Mark Hetfield now feign concern for Israel when he has been bashing Israel for years over the illegal alien problem Israel has been trying to cope with! See here and here.
Here is the “news” about how happy Syrian Americans are that HIAS is helping get their people into America.
At theWashington Post:
LOS ANGELES — Advocates for Syrian refugee resettlement found unexpected allies as major Jewish groups have called on President Obama to open America’s gates to 100,000 asylum seekers from the war-torn Arab nation.
The American Jewish resettlement agency HIAS has launched a petition drive calling on Obama to resettle 100,000 Syrians in the U.S., and Reform rabbis pledged to make refugee assistance a key theme for High Holiday sermons and congregational activism.
Jewish American groups, saying they can’t be bystanders as the worst refugee crisis since World War II unfolds, are joining Arab-American leaders in a critique of existing policies, which have sharply limited the numbers of refugees settled in the United States.
The nerve of Hetfield now saying we should bring Syrian Muslims to America to ensure Israel’s safety! Why? Presumably just to pander to the American pro-Israel community when Hetfield has been a leading critic of Israel on the immigration issue urging them to let in more ‘refugees’ which anyone in their right mind knows will kill Israel.
HIAS President and CEO Mark Hetfield said the request for additional Syrian refugees is also a matter of ensuring Israel’s safety.
“The crisis in Syria threatens to destabilize Jordan, Lebanon, and perhaps even Turkey and Egypt,” he said. “This cannot be good for Israel.”
[….]
“HIAS has consistently called for more resettlement and pushed back against discriminatory rhetoric opposing the opening of doors to Syrian refugees,” said Omar Hossino, public relations director for the Syrian American Council in Washington, D.C.
It took 5 seconds to find this linking the Syrian American Council to the Muslim Brotherhood.
And, btw, HIAS was a leading activist group pushing the ‘Gang of Eight’ amnesty billin the Senate (we have many posts on their lobbying activities on these pages over the years).
If the US brings in 100,000 Syrian Muslims as HIAS is demanding, they will be rolling in the green stuff! So come on lazy reporters, do your homework!
*** Have a look at the most recent Form 990 for HIAS (which re-branded itself and dropped the word Hebrew from its name awhile back). It is a $31 million dollar a year supposed ‘non-profit’ group that receives 55% of its funding from the US taxpayer. Federal grants total just over $16 million and that is to resettle refugees! And they receive other funds related to their refugee resettlement efforts including over $500,000 in processing fees for loans (refugee air fare loan collections).
Hetfield pulls down a salary (and related income) of just over $300,000 per year and there are 5 other employees in the six-figure range. Go hereto see if HIAS is working in your city.
Check it out below!
We reported on the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society’s campaign against “fear and hate” just the day before yesterday, here. Ms. Nezer will join President and CEO Mark Hetfield on the call which I am sure is connected to the Presidential Determinationgoing to Congress this month.
We are witnessing one of the greatest humanitarian crises of our generation. There are over 60 million refugees and displaced persons throughout the world who have experienced war, violence, and persecution in their home countries. Over 11 million of these individuals are from Syria and have had to flee for their lives, many seeking refuge in surrounding countries. Carrying tales of war and conflict, many hundreds of thousands continue their journey across Europe searching for safety and freedom.
The numbers are staggering and the stories are horrifying. Perhaps you have seen the news articles from this past week: 71 people suffocated to death in a truck in Austria. 117 were found dead in boats off the coast of Libya.
This is a moment for leadership and action. In the face of very urgent need, the response from far too many nations, including our own, has been underwhelming and inadequate.
Guided by our own history and values, HIAS is mobilizing American Jews to action. We invite you to join us for a comprehensive, up-to-the-minute overview of the Syrian refugee crisis, including what the situation actually looks like on the ground, what needs to be done to begin to alleviate the tremendous need, and what you can do to help.
Maybe someone will ask him if they will be saving the Christians first (of course the Jews are long gone from countries like Syria)? Since 2014, HIAS has been calling for 75,000 Syrians to be resettled in the US over a five year period. But, I am pretty sure they are on the bandwagon for 65,000before Obama leaves office.
Last we checked 94% of the Syrians resettled so far in the US are Sunni Muslims!
For new readers, HIAS, is one of the nine major federal refugee resettlement contractorsbringing third worlders to your towns.
The other day we learned that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) hasput out an alert to its supporters to contact their Washington representatives and urge them to continue supporting the importation of third world poverty to America. HIAS claims that “fear and hate” are what is driving citizen concern about the rapid pace of refugee resettlement to hundreds of US cities and towns. Although they don’t mention any bill by name, they must be concerned about Rep. Brian Babin’s bill(the only bill we know of) that seeks to suspend refugee resettlement until a financial accounting of the program has been accomplished. Rep. Babin is also concerned about national security in the implementation of the refugee program at this time.
Here is reader ‘7delta’ responding to HIAS (emphasis is mine):
Hate, hate, hate, with a serving of phobia du jour. It’s all they’ve got. When facts and truth don’t support an argument, resort to name calling. It’s not just intellectually dishonest, it’s childish. Name calling and the tactics of these groups are unbecoming of a people who claim to be motivated by compassion. They destroy their own case every time they launch into these immature diatribes and attempt to emotionally manipulate citizens and their representatives. Just a head’s up, volags. It no longer works. We have read your own materials and seen your fruits. We have taken your measure and find you wanting.
Fact: The federal government has no moral or Constitutional authority for charity or for mercy, though courts, through existing law, can exhibit mercy, at its discretion, to individuals under its jurisdiction. Charity and mercy belongs solely to the people as individuals or as consenting groups that come together to combine their personal resources to render aid.
The federal government’s sole reason for existing is to protect the citizens, their rights, safety, security, sovereignty, resources, administer equal justice and to punish lawbreakers in order to preserve tranquility, as well as the safety and the well being of its citizens. Government has no authority or resources that did not come from its citizens. All government can do is obligate its citizens to bear the burdens and suffer the consequences. All immigration should primarily benefit its citizens. Never should it burden one of our own “least of these” or risk any citizen.
My challenge to HIAS, or whatever its new name, and to all other volags, is that if your motivation is indeed altruistic and your compassion for the refugees is genuine concern for humanity, stop taking all federal funding, stop enrolling the refugees onto federal programs and financially, morally and emotionally support each refugee for the amount of time it takes each refugee to become completely independent, not “self-sustaining” through public aid programs, but totally independent to care for themselves and their family members and to assimilate into American culture.
As long as you continue to take any federal dollars and run your programs like human mills, and until you accept, as private individuals, the responsibility for who you sponsor and for all the financial and social needs of the refugee, and obligate no one else without their consent, as it was intended and is the proper way to administer charity and mercy, you have no credibility. As it stands now, you certainly have no superior moral ground to denigrate individuals who have not consented and hold you to account for being what you claim to be.
Editor: One of the first questions I hear when people first learn about how we (our government in Washington and their contractors) are bringing in over 100,000 needy people through refugee resettlement, asylum and across our borders as so-called ‘unaccompanied alien children’ is this: Why would we do this when we have so many impoverished and out-of-work Americans? Good question!
This post is archived in our category entitled, ‘Comments worth noting/guest posts.’ There is more good commentary there from ‘7delta.’