Tag: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

HIAS Sues Trump Again, Contractor Does Not Want Local Citizens to have a Say in Placement Decisions

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

It is as simple as this:  HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) wants to continue to call the shots from Washington, DC about where refugees will be placed in America.

HIAS has been protesting Trump from the moment he was elected. Here CEO Mark Hetfield led a February 2017 anti-Trump rally that featured then Rep. Keith Ellison.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/14/breitbart-federally-funded-refugee-resettlement-contractor-hias-organized-ny-rally-against-trump/

You, who live in cities large and small are expected to shut up and let the professionals and experts determine which third world refugees will be resettled in which communities.

Never mind that as we pointed out here, the President’s Executive Order really doesn’t do much and never mind that there are yet no published guidelines from the federal government about how the Executive Order would be carried out, HIAS is nevertheless getting a jump on it by beating their anti-Trump drums and filing a lawsuit.

Clearly they have no interest in listening to what citizens have to say about their community being forever changed by federal contractors working for the US State Department. 

I suspect this new lawsuit is all about raising more money from an outraged constituency and I’ll tell you why I think that after you see what HIAS said yesterday.

Here is Mark Hetfield, HIAS CEO in an e-mail announcing the lawsuit:

Dear Friend,

In September, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) purporting to give state and local governments the authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions. This state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban not only violates federal law, but also keeps refugees apart from their families, and prevents willing and able American communities like yours from welcoming people in need of safety. [Cry me a river!—ed]

This morning, HIAS, joined by two other refugee agencies, filed suit to stop this latest attempt to shut down refugee resettlement.

Now here is just some of their press announcement:

Today HIAS, together with two other refugee resettlement agencies, took President Trump to court over his recent executive order giving state and local officials authority to block refugee resettlement in their jurisdictions.

HIAS, Church World Service (CWS), and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) are suing the administration because it is attempting to enact a state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban.

[….]

The president’s order, signed on September 26, would require resettlement agencies, including HIAS, CWS, and LIRS, to obtain written consent from all localities and states in which they plan to resettle refugees. If written consent cannot be obtained, it could prevent resettlement agencies from maintaining local affiliate offices that provide essential services to refugees already in the area.

According to the complaint, filed this morning in U.S. District Court in Maryland, the executive order violates federal law, which  requires federal agencies to make decisions about where refugees are to be placed within the United States according to a detailed list of factors, leaving no room for state and local governments to veto such decisions.

What factors? What are the detailed list of factors on which the feds (with their contractors) base their placement decisions? Shouldn’t we be given that information? We are the ones paying for it in more ways than one!

HIAS continues…

HIAS sued the Trump administration in 2017, when the president’s executive order called for halting refugee resettlement and banning people from seven majority Muslim countries with an exception for non-Muslim religious minorities.

HIAS, CWS, and LIRS, are represented by the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP).

[….]

Melissa Keaney, Senior Litigation Staff Attorney for IRAP called the order “a back-door attempt to decimate the refugee resettlement program.” and noted that a single local politician should not be able to stop Americans who have been waiting years to reunite with family members.  [Their willingness to flat out lie is disgusting!  A single local politician could not stop resettlement!—ed]

“Trump’s War on Refugees” as they call it, has been very lucrative for HIAS!

I suspected that HIAS, and maybe some of the other contractors, was financially hurting as the Trump Administration has severely cut back on the number of paying clients (aka refugees) that the contractors are paid to ‘care for’ for a brief time, but I was wrong.

HIAS is better off financially today than it was at the pinnacle of the Obama Administration when refugees were pouring in by the tens of thousands.

We are getting into the weeds here, but hang in there.

I went back to the last four years of HIAS’s IRS Form 990s and guess what I confirmed?  HIAS is richer today than when Obama’s refugee spigot was wide open.

Their federal dollars have fallen only slightly while their private fundraising has mushroomed with the addition of over $10 million to their income between 2015 and 2018.

They are making money hand over fist because Donald Trump is in the White House!

In addition they are paying out more in salaries and giving less to other organizations.

Let me be clear.  If HIAS was a truly charitable organization that was not partially funded by taxpayers, I wouldn’t care about where their money came from, where they spent it, or how large their salaries are, but we, the taxpayers of America, are involuntarily paying for their overtly political activities and thus have a right to know how our money is being spent.

Here is a summary of some key data points on their IRS forms (I’m rounding numbers to make it easier to follow the money!):

2015  (Obama year)

$20.4 million from government grants

$15.2 million from other sources of income

Total income: $40.6 million (other smaller sources of income included)(Conservatively 50% federally funded because some of their other smaller amounts of income are from taxpayers too.)

$8.5 million passed through to other organizations

$12.2 million paid in salaries (salaries do not include other payroll expenses)

$375,000 CEO (Hetfield) compensation (includes other related compensation)

2016 (Obama’s top refugee ‘welcoming’ year)

$24.5 million from government grants

$17.4 million from other sources of income

Total income: $45.3 million (54% federally funded)

$12.2 million passed through to other organizations

$13.9 million paid in salaries

$344,000 CEO total compensation

2017 (Trump takes over)

$20.7 million from government grants

$19.9 million from other sources of income

Total income: $48.4 million (43% federally funded)

$8.9 million passed through to other organizations

$15.9 million paid in salaries

$322,000 CEO total compensation (took a little pay cut)

2018 (Trump)

$19.1 million from government grants (just about what they were raking in during Obama’s 2015!)

$27.4 million from other sources of income

Total income: $50 million (38% federally funded)

$6.6 million passed through to other organizations

$14.9 million paid in salaries

$330,000 CEO total compensation

Bottomline:  HIAS is wealthier today ($10 million wealthier) than they were four years ago and I suspect they are fully aware of how the President, and their campaign against him, has enormously helped their fundraising operations.

The lawsuit will likely bring in gobs more money for them!

And, just so you know, I’ll be looking at the Form 990s of the other ‘religious charity’ partners in this lawsuit.

Refugee Contractor/Community Organizer Tells Followers to Get to their Governor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS), as if on cue, sent out an appeal this week to their followers to pressure their governors to support refugee resettlement via a letter to the President.

We just reported two days ago about how the Trump Executive Order , that ostensibly provides for local input in the decision-making process of where to place refugees (decisions right now are made by the US State Department in conjunction with the nine federal refugee contractors), will do almost nothing and is already serving as another means for the contractors to bash Trump.

The governor of Pennsylvania, where HIAS is a lead resettlement agency, has already fired off his letter to the President.  No surprise that he says PA welcomes more refugees.  See where else HIAS has affiliates, here.

Building on that success, HIAS is now urging its followers to pressure other governors.

Here is what they say in an e-mail yesterday:

Dear friend,

Ask your Governor to to Stand Up for Refugees

On September 26, the White House issued an Executive Order that, for the first time, allows states and municipalities to veto refugee resettlement in their communities. This order, the latest in a series of attempts to dismantle the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, is in effect a state-by-state, city-by-city refugee ban.

Refugee resettlement is lucrative work. As Senior VP at HIAS, Nezer in 2018, according to HIAS Form990, had a compensation package that included $183,498 in salary and an additional $68,836 in related compensation. If this were a truly private organization, salaries would be none of our business, but as a quasi-government organization that received over $20 million from taxpayers that same year, it becomes our business.

Call your Governor now to urge them to continue welcoming refugees to your state.

If the Executive Order goes into effect, it could drastically reduce — or entirely stop — the resettlement of refugees in your community. We need the help of HIAS supporters in every state to make sure that refugees continue to be welcomed to our country.

While the administration is still working out how this order will be implemented, we expect that it will create chaos and confusion about where refugees can be resettled.

[Note how they are helping create chaos by urging governors, ahead of any formal process being put in place to support a continuous flow of paying refugee clients to American towns and cities.—ed]

Already a number of Governors have communicated that they will continue to support refugee resettlement in their states. We need to let all Governors know where the Jewish community stands on resettlement and work together to ensure our states publicly declare welcome for refugees.

Call your Governor now and ask them to take a stand by declaring their support for refugee resettlement in your state.

Thank you for taking action,

Melanie Nezer

Vice President,

Public Affairs

P.S. We recently started using a new system to make calling your elected official simple and effective. All you need to do is click the link in this email and pick up the phone!

The refugee industry is organized and well-funded.  I’ll have more to say about HIAS’s IRS Form 990s in a few days, but check out their system to make it even easier for their followers to quickly fire off a phone call to their governors.

Those of you concerned about your state and community (whether taxpayers can afford more impoverished people and the societal upheaval that comes with them) have no such system to make your voices heard on the issue of refugee resettlement and the unfairness of the whole placement system.  

Frankly, no major immigration-control group has made refugee resettlement a priority.

HIAS Spearheading Effort to Repeal Muslim Ban in Anti-Trump PR Stunt

~ Ann Corcoran

HIAS, for those new to refugee industry lingo, is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society  and yesterday they launched a grassroots campaign to pressure Congress into passing legislation that would abolish Trump’s so-called Muslim ban, and make it harder for any future President to keep us safe.

Nevermind that there isn’t a Muslim ban as we reported here a few days ago.

Rohingya Muslims are entering the US as refugees by the thousands, and taxpayer-funded HIAS  (about $25 million in one recent year!) and the other federally-funded refugee contractors are being paid to take care of the thousands of US-bound Special Immigrant Visa holders from Iraq and Afghanistan (mostly Muslims!)*** who supposedly helped our military (and NGOs!) in those terror-producing hotbed countries!

But, the propagandists in the Open Borders cabal never let facts get in the way of their get-Trump agenda.

They know the bill will never become law while Trump is in the White House, however they are using it as one more media stunt in advance of the 2020 presidential contest. And, they need to keep their followers/donors busy and engaged.

Not enough Muslims in America! HIAS with CAIR protesting the so-called “Muslim ban” at the White House in January 2018. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

 

Here is what HIAS is telling its followers to do. (And lucky you! You can read their appeal in ten languages!)

Tell Congress to Support the NO BAN Act

On Tuesday, September 24, Congress will review H.R. 2214, the NO BAN Act. The NO BAN Act will repeal all versions of the Muslim Ban authorized through executive order over the past two years, and will amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination based on religion. Additionally, it will limit the broad executive authority that allowed the refugee and asylum bans by implementing stricter implementation requirements and greater congressional oversight.

Now, more than ever, it is critical that Members of Congress show their support against discrimination, and support this legislation.

Join us in telling Members of Congress to support the NO BAN Act.

STEP ONE: Find out who your representative is here.

Continue reading here.  They have kindly provided a script in case their followers need guidance about what to say.

Learn more about the bill here.  See that it has 170 co-sponsors (all Dems).

If you disagree with HIAS, use their link above to find your representative (I suspect you already know who your representative is) and call your member of Congress to express your views in your own (polite please) words.

***A reader, who wished not to be named, told me that it was the large number of SIVs entering with the help of the contractors that were keeping the refugee ‘non-profits’ afloat during these lean Trump years.

Pittsburgh paper: HIAS remains defiant in wake of synagogue murders

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s headline is this:

Pittsburgh’s Jewish refugee resettlement agency, HIAS vow to continue work after threats, Squirrel Hill shooting

 

The story paints a picture of a ‘non-profit‘ group that is all about welcoming the poor and downtrodden to America, but never mentions the fact that it is more than 50% funded by US and state taxpayers many of whom do not share its open-borders views and would prefer their tax dollars be spent on America’s needy people.

HIAS received $186 million from taxpayers in the last ten years, here.  Its CEO is paid over $300,000 annually.

And, like virtually all mainstream media stories about the horrific attack on innocents, The Post-Gazette, mentions not one word about that fact that HIAS is paid to do its ‘good works’ by the US government.

As I said here.

It is fine and dandy if HIAS wants to hold anti-Trump political rallies, sue the President and organize for the Tuesday midterms, but doing those things while accepting millions of taxpayer dollars every year strikes most people as fundamentally unfair!

 

white house CWS and HIAS
This is from an anti-Trump protest in January of this year put on by Church World Service, HIAS and CAIR   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

 

Here is a bit from the deficient Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story:

The Jewish refugee resettlement agency in Pittsburgh remains defiant in its work despite the connection Saturday’s mass shooting at a Squirrel Hill synagogue shared with its mission.

[….]

“These [sites] are echo chambers where people just get angrier and angrier and angrier about falsehoods,” said Mark Hetfield, CEO and president of HIAS — formerly the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society. “I mean, what harm was this congregation doing by welcoming refugees in a religious service?”

HIAS pie chart
Charity Navigator reports that in 2016, HIAS was 58.5% funded by government grants mostly to resettle refugees.    https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3820

Mr. Hetfield said that he’s aware of several “hate sites and hate sites masquerading as issue-oriented sites” that have attacked the work of HIAS and JFCS.

“But they’ve just been words so far, but as we see now, words lead to action.”

Mr. Hetfield said HIAS has in the past had a designated person monitor social media for threats but the organization will be “totally changing” its strategy.

“I mean we did not know about this murderer on Gab, we were not following Gab. We do not follow these hate-filled fora, but we need to,” he said. “And then we need to figure out what do we do when we see things. We see things every day against us.”

That is an example of how out of touch with most Americans these open borders leftwing groups are, they didn’t know about Gab?  This is a prime example of why the Dems were so shocked at the 2016 election of Donald Trump.

Mr. Hetfield said the physical security strategy has changed as well since Saturday. Armed guards now surround HIAS offices in New York City and Silver Spring, Md. He likened the change to how he felt after 9/11.

JFCS has begun closely monitoring social media and re-evaluating security since the attack happened; it had also not known about Mr. Bowers prior to Saturday.

Go here for more.

See if you can find one word about how HIAS is a US State Department contractor that is paid by the head to place refugees in towns and cities of their choosing (behind closed doors in conjunction with the US State Department).

If HIAS, the US State Department, and the mainstream media were transparent and honest about how refugee resettlement is carried out in America, citizen taxpayers wouldn’t get so frustrated.

So, why aren’t they more transparent?

I have a guess, but I would like to hear what they say for a change!

Endnote: I did see an AP story sometime in the last week that did mention (briefly!) that HIAS receives taxpayer dollars, but couldn’t find it again.

 

 

Pennsylvania synagogue killer was angry about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and he didn’t like Trump either.

Editor:  First, let me be clear. Nothing in this post is meant in any way to suggest that we condone this horrific act of violence against innocent people. This was a vile act by someone whose hatred of Jews was so great that he had obviously abandoned all reason and we condemn it.

Here is Reuters:

UPDATE 1-Who is Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect?

 

Two hours before a gunman burst into the Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire during a Shabbat religious service, Bowers posted on chat site Gab.com about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a non-profit that helps Jewish refugees relocate to the United States.

“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in,” wrote Bowers, a heavy-set, white male.

[….]

Bowers, who is a registered voter with “no affiliation” in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, took aim in one post at U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of being a “globalist” who did nothing to stop the “infestation” of the United States by Jews.

“For the record, I did not vote for him nor have I owned, worn or even touched a MAGA hat,” he wrote.

More here.

Just so you know, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (rebranded as HIAS a few years ago), resettles very few Jews.  As a federal resettlement contractor, it resettles refugees assigned to it by the US State Department from all of the usual hot spots around the world.

Screenshot (765)
Charity Navigator reports that in 2016, HIAS was 58.5% funded by government grants mostly to resettle refugees.     https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3820

Curious to see how many Jewish people have been admitted to the US as refugees over the last ten years, I checked Wrapsnet.

In ten years the US admitted a total of 635,173 refugees representing a vast array of religions from all over the world.

Of that number only 1,893 (.3%) were of the Jewish faith with most of those coming from Iran(658) and Russia(545).

However….

HIAS has put itself out as the most politically active refugee resettlement agency making them not hard to miss on the internet!

Indeed, according to media reports (assuming they are accurate!), what drew the killer to a target was HIAS’s e-mail advertisement for their special services called National Refugee Shabbat held in hundreds of synagogues in the run-up to the November election.

As readers here know, there are nine federal resettlement contractors*** and based on my informal assessment going back several years, HIAS is the most politically active of the resettlement contractors and has been dogging Donald Trump unrelentingly since the 2016 Presidential campaign.

 

Hetfield at NY protest
HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield at 2017 pro-refugee/anti-Trump rally in New York.

Not far behind as open borders political organizers and activists, I would put Church World Service and then the US Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Charities.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is also very politically engaged.

Free speech!

They don’t just advocate for refugees!

I think we all agree everyone is entitled to free speech, and HIAS can demonstrate in the streets against the President and for open borders, they can sue the Administration, they can cheer on the migrant caravan and they can campaign against Republicans in the midterms, but what is so patently unfair to the average citizen who is learning about their community organizing activities (from alternative media) is that they receive millions and millions of taxpayer dollars each year while promoting a political agenda that many Americans vehemently disagree with.

If they were truly a private non-profit organization, they could pay big salaries and politically organize to their hearts content, but when they are a government partner, ostensibly to care for refugees, we expect them to be neutral on what is the greatest concern facing the country now—-immigration.

Where is Congress?

The mainstream media rarely tells the public about the source of the resettlement contractors’ funds, and Congress has never, in the ten years I’ve followed the US Refugee Admissions Program, ever done any oversight of the federal contracting system that these nine have monopolized, in some cases for over three decades.

Funding the Open Borders Left!

See just for starters this graph from the Capital Research Center showing the last ten years of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the nine VOLAGS.

 

simpson-table-2
HIAS is in column 4 under VOLAGs.  $186 million from the US Treasury in ten years.  I think you can see that many of these refugee agencies involved in political activities could not survive without your tax dollars.

 

Again, there is no excuse for violence, but there is great frustration out there that a serious effort to be more open and transparent with the public might begin to quell.

So, how about the mainstream media does its job and gives the public the facts about groups like HIAS so ‘conspiracy’ theories don’t develop, and then it would be refreshing if Congress took its role seriously, investigated where our tax dollars are going and what they are being used for, and thus give us confidence that our government cares about us—Americans first!

I’ll update this post as we get more information.

 

*** The nine major contractors (VOLAGS) that monopolize the US Refugee Admissions Program are these:

Church World Service (CWS)
Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (DFMS is its other name)
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
World Relief Corporation (WR)