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.
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.
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!
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?”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Serviceis 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 streetsagainst the President and for open borders, they cansue the Administration, they can cheer on the migrant caravan and they can campaign against Republicans in the midterms, but what is so patently unfairto 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 Centershowing the last ten years of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the nine VOLAGS.
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)
A week or so ago I told you about how the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)has launched its “Vote for Welcome”campaign.
Have you seen this poster where you live?
If you are a new reader you may not know that HIAS is one of nine federal refugee contractors*** paid by the head to place refugees in your towns and cities.
They are also politically involved in ‘welcoming’ migrants of all sorts to America (for instance, they played a major role in attempting to influence Senators during the ‘Gang of Eight’ deliberations a few years ago).
Investigative reporter Jim Simpson writing at the Capital Research Center says that HIAShas received $186 MILLION from the US Treasury in the last ten years. See here.
If President Trump continues to admit fewer numbers of refugees their budgetary bottom-line will suffer.
In my opinion, there is nothing more maddening than an election-year political campaign being run by a non-profit group heavily funded by us—-US taxpayers!
Thanks to reader Brenda for alerting me to their #MissingNeighborscampaign and poster.
This is a screenshot so the links are not hot. If you want to see their toolkit, go here: https://www.hias.org/sites/default/files/hias_2018_elections_toolkit.pdf
You too should be educating candidates!
***Below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.
Faithful readers are probably sick of seeing this list almost every day, but a friend once told me that people need to see something seven times before it completely sinks in, so it seems to me that 70, or even 700 isn’t too much!
And, besides I have new readers every day.
Here is HIAS protesting the Trump Administration in New York in February 2017. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/14/breitbart-federally-funded-refugee-resettlement-contractor-hias-organized-ny-rally-against-trump/
The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups, community organizers and lobbyists paid on our dime!
And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees into your towns and cities and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! And, get them registered to vote eventually!
We’ve been talking a lot lately about the big bucks involved in the refugee industry—first with the federal ‘non-profit’ contractors and also with global corporations hiring refugees and other immigrants
.
Jewish Family Service of San Diego offers employment services for corporations.
Thanks to reader Kevin for directing me to the website of Jewish Family Service San Diegoand a page they post for the business clients.
When I see this kind of information it reminds me that there is no longer such a thing as capitalism without the federal government putting a thumb on the scales for certain businesses, or to benefit certain sharp operators who use their connections to Senators and Members of Congress to aquire financially lucrative deals for government contracts.
But I digress….
Below is a screenshot of a portion of Jewish Family Service San Diegowebsite as they fulfill their role as a ‘headhunter’ helping businesses find employees—in this case immigrant employees. See the whole list of benefits, here.
Jewish Family Service of San Diego is a subcontractor of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society,see here.
Doing well by doing good!
I looked around at their financials and got sidetracked as I often do especially when I see ginormous salaries for non-profit CEOs (at an organization that receives millions annually from taxpayers)….. maybe a story for another day!
The important point I want to make with this post is that the federal refugee contractors help refugees/immigrants (their “clients”) find work (in competition with American workers) to benefit big business while you pay for it.
