Tag: International Institute of New England

Massachusetts and New Hampshire refugee contractors begin cutback too

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

In my previous post I told you about the reality setting in in Arizona, and now we see that New England refugee contractors are facing that reality too and cutting staff, or shortening hours.
I am delighted to see more effort being made on the part of reporters to get their facts.
Here at WBUR News (NPR Boston) reporter Shannon Dooling actually did some work (emphasis is mine)!
Look at this, right up front—refugee agencies paid by the head!

Immigration lawyer Kerry Doyle admits President’s broad authority to determine refugee admissions. Photo and bio: http://www.gravesanddoyle.com/biographies.html

Refugee resettlement agencies receive funding based on the number of people they anticipate resettling, so the uncertainty around President Trump’s travel ban has serious fiscal consequences. [They are paid by how many they actually resettle as they bid for bodies.—ed]

Jeff Thielman is the CEO of the International Institute of New England, a resettlement agency working in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. His agency expects eight refugees to arrive by March 28.

“It means that we have not filled a number of positions that were open in all three of our offices in the resettlement area,” he said. “It also means that we may have to make further reductions. We’re going to make those decisions in the next few weeks.”

Ascentria Care Alliance, a resettlement agency based in Worcester and operating in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire, announced Monday that as a result of Trump’s travel ban it had laid off or reduced hours for 14 employees.

“Although the orders have been stayed, even the most recent one, we are no longer receiving any refugees in the pipeline and we don’t anticipate receiving any more refugees until maybe four to six months out at the earliest,” said Jodie Justofin, Ascentria’s vice president of communications.

For new readers, see that in 2013, Ascentria’s CEO admitted that refugee resettlement IS A BUSINESS!
Dooling continues….

Despite that temporary freeze, the finances of resettlement agencies are still unstable. But a return to pre-Trump quotas could boost their coffers.

Before he left office, President Obama capped the number of refugees admitted into the U.S. during the current fiscal year at 110,000. Resettlement agencies engineered their budgets through September based on those projections.  [If they did that it was really really dumb because that (110,000) was by far the highest ceiling proposed since before 9/11. The average for most of Bush and Obama years was 65,000.—ed]

[….]

President Trump cut that cap on refugees to 50,000. That’s an action within the powers of the executive.

But since Trump’s cap is part of an executive order, the constitutionality of which is under question, Boston immigration attorney Kerry Doyle says the quota may be challenged in the courts.

Ha! Wishful thinking?

“While the president does have broad authority to set the fiscal numbers, because it’s caught up in a lot of the other problems with this executive order being potentially unconstitutional, the question is whether the 50,000 is also stayed,” Doyle said.

Doyle confirms what we said that Trump did not have to reduce the CEILING or slow the flow through an Executive Order.
And Ms. Doyle does know that the judge can’t order the federal government to spend money and send agents abroad to process refugees. It would be insane if Trump’s people believed that! They should just go ahead and keep the numbers low (or at today’s level, see right hand sidebar, 38,111) ignoring the judge’s unconstitutional assertion.
More here at WBUR.
I want to reiterate another point I have been making. The resettlement agencies (aka contractors) are in a pickle because they have been running a kind of Ponzi scheme where they anticipate certain refugee numbers (paying clients) coming in in the future, but they never have enough private money in their budgets to tide them over if the flow slows. Why? I can only guess they have been operating for so long on mostly federal funding that they have gotten too lazy to do private fundraising.
Or, there aren’t enough private citizens willing to pay for refugee resettlement!

Massachusetts: Iraqi family of seven living in a motel, so where are all of the bleeding heart humanitarians?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….where are all of you ‘Christian’ do-gooders with your personal charitable giving?
This story should make your blood boil.  We are lectured that we should “welcome” refugees to our towns and cities and then those doing all the yammering leave families like this one high and dry, living in a series of motels and expecting their teenage children to morph into successful assimilated American citizens (yeh right!).

Jeffret Thielman
Jeffrey Thielman is the CEO of the International Institute of New England which did not respond to a Boston Globe reporter’s call. This family is his responsibility! http://iine.us/2015/06/iine-announces-new-presidentceo-2/

Read this story, read the whole thing from the Boston Globe on Friday (hat tip: Diane).  And, don’t get mad at the refugees, get mad at your Senators and Members of Congress, get mad at the UN, get mad at the US State Department and get especially mad at the International Institute of New England which brings them in and drops them off!
Do not read this as a plea for more taxpayer funding, but as a plea for a reduction in the number of refugees we admit.  If we can’t take care of them, then don’t bring them.
And, for those of you contemplating ‘welcoming’ refugees to your town for the first time, you will be paying for it.  This article highlights the fact that local and state taxpayer dollars are involved; and, that many of these traumatized families require expensive mental health treatment.
It also points out that your local refugee resettlement contractor simply washes its hands of troubled families and moves on to the next paying ‘clients’ the State Department sends them!
I told you yesterday, that the US State Department is accepting testimony (by May 19th) about the size and scope of the Refugee Admissions Program for FY2017 (Obama has already signaled it will recommend bringing in 100,000 for that year). Someone should write up this story from Massachusetts as an important point in your testimony.
Boston Globe (this is just a bit of the story about the contractor):

Refugee families depend on the federal government to help once they arrive. To assist them, the State Department contracts with nonprofits to help families find an apartment, sign up for health care, enroll in ESL classes, obtain food stamps, and look for employment opportunities. But the organizations are only required to provide guidance for three months, and refugees who need more help must turn to state programs and case managers for other benefits such as welfare.

Samantha Kaufman, a spokeswoman for the Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development, declined to comment on the Rubayes’ plight. “We can’t release any personal information about individuals and families,” she wrote in an e-mail.

Dr. Richard Mollica, director of the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma, called for increased refugee benefits from the government.

“If you have a medical problem or a mental health problem or you’re a survivor of torture, the probability that you’re going to make it to independent living after eight or nine months is probably nil,” Mollica said.

Currently, the biggest allotment of financial aid for refugees is a one-time federal payment of $2,025 for each family member. Some families pool those funds for rent and clothing, but at least $900 of each allowance goes to pay administrative costs to such resettlement agencies as the International Institute of New England, which was assigned to the family originally for three months, according to Rubaye. The International Institute did not respond to queries about resettling refugees. [No surprise!—ed]

There is much more, read it all.
See our recent post on the number of (potentially troubled) Iraqis entering the US and note that in recent years Iraqis made up the largest ethnic group admitted (82% are Muslims).  We also have an extensive archive with 688 previous posts on the Iraqi migration to America.
Way back in 2008, a wise Iraqi refugee boy penned a letter to the editor in which he said this about the large number of Iraqis entering the US as refugees:

It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.

But, the truth is that resettlement contractors can’t keep their doors open if they slow the flow as each refugee brings money (your taxpayer dollars) per head they resettle.  The whole resettlement model is (wrongly, I believe) built on increasing the numbers we admit! It is not about assuring assimilation and success!

Manchester, NH mayor: resettlement contractor breaks promise

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The International Institute of New England (also a Limon family enterprise) says they never intended to slow the flow of refugees to overloaded Manchester beyond one year.  Readers new to Refugee Resettlement should know that resettlement occurs on a fiscal year basis that begins on October 1 and runs to September 30th of the following year.

That means that there will be a big push from now to the end of September to get large numbers of refugees distributed to your towns and, then starting October 1, they will be working to fulfill the President’s determination (his wishlist!) for the number to be resettled in FY 2014.   (Remember when so many of you testified to the State Department back in May, that was to get your input, which will be generally ignored, to the plan for 2014.)

From the Manchester Union Leader (hat tip: Joanne):

International Institute’s Benedict-Drew: No deal for FY2014!

Another 200 refugees will be resettled in Manchester in the coming months, a number that Mayor Ted Gatsas said breaks an agreement he had reached with a refugee resettlement organization.

However, the International Institute of New England said the agreement was only for a 12-month period that lapses next month. And the projection for the coming 12 months — 200 refugees for Manchester — is the same as the current period. An additional 50 will be placed in Nashua.

Carolyn Benedict-Drew, the director of the Boston-based International Institute of New England, said the refugees entering New Hampshire starting in October will most likely be Bhutanese and Iraqis.

They are really brazen about it—-turning refugees into VOTERS and turning red states blue!

Benedict-Drew said Bhutanese started settling in Manchester in 2008, and the first wave are in the pipeline to become citizens, about 300.

“These are going to be voting members of our community who will be building the economic base in New Hampshire,” Benedict-Drew said.

Report from USCRI (Lavinia and Peter Limon) says Manchester has lots of taxpayer supported health-care goodies for refugees including mental health and HIV/AIDs treatment:

A recent report by the International Institute of New Hampshire prepared for the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants said that the state’s two largest cities have a favorable economic forecast, medical clinics and facilities to treat refugees with mental health and physical problems, including HIV/AIDs, and access to state funding for English classes.

Mayor Gatsas says he still wants a moratorium and is following what is going on in Springfield, MA.

The abstract report described Gatsas as neutral on the additional 200 refugees.

But Gatsas said that’s not the case, and he continues to favor a moratorium on refugee resettlement. He noted the Democratic mayor of Springfield, Mass., has asked for a moratorium.

Benedict-Drew:  We call the shots, not the duly-elected Mayor

Benedict-Drew said the agreement only covered the current year.

“There was never an agreement for more than one year,” she said. “We honored it for one year.

So why are the contractors so unwilling to give Manchester a break.

First, they are driven by an agenda that includes diminishing the role of states (under the 10th Amendment) and bringing immigrant voters to traditionally conservative cities and states.  But on a practical level, they are paid by the head to resettle refugees and the various contractors are competing against each other to get their share of the clients (aka refugees).   If an agency can’t resettle a certain number of refugees, they will have to close offices and reduce staff.

Once they find a community into which they can pour the poor, they are reluctant to give it up.   Additionally, they are paid by the head to bring family members to join the relatives already in the ‘seed’ community.  Last year’s resettled Burmese, Somalis, etc. want to bring their extended family to join them and the contractors want to oblige them by placing them in the same town.

That’s why, if you don’t have refugees yet, but there is some word you might get some, raise questions in the local media right away.  I call that the squawk factor, if the feds and the contractors get the idea that the squawking (really the questioning) is not going to stop they will move on to a more “welcoming” target city.

Oops!  Update!  One more thing, go here Arrivals by Destination City by Nationality by FY as of July 31, 2013 to see what nationalities and how many refugees Manchester (or your city) has taken since 2001.

Boston bomber pal gets out on bail with help from “refugee” mom’s elite friends

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Robel Phillipos is charged with lying to federal investigators after he and others went to Dzhokar Tsarnaev’s room after Phillipos recognized his friend on the videos released by the FBI in the days following the marathon terrorist attack.  He did not call the police to report that he recognized the bombing suspect as his buddy.  A shouted question from a reporter yesterday as to why he didn’t alert authorities is heard at the end of this interview with his lawyers (as they walked away).

Mom outside court house. Phillipos lawyer is on the right. Photo Boston Globe

From the Daily Caller:

Robel Phillipos, the 19-year old classmate of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev who was charged with lying to federal investigators, gained release from custody with the help of a number of supportive affidavits from Boston-area academics and humanitarians close to his mother, according to a copy of his bond request obtained by the Daily Caller.

Mom is Ethiopian refugee who has important Boston “humanitarian” friends:

Phillipos’ mother Genet Bekele — an Ethiopian refugee who holds a master’s degree in social work from Boston University and worked for a refugee resettlement agency and as the director of the emergency shelter at the nonprofit battered women’s shelter Transition House — provided an affidavit in support of her son.

Transition House executive director Risa Mednick also provided an affidavit supporting Phillipos, claiming that she knew Phillipos’ mother when they both worked at Transition House and on the Cambridge Domestic Violence Task Force. Mednick claimed that Phillipos had a “surprisingly nuanced understanding of how social issues impact families and youth.”

Wellesley College art professor Salem Mekuria also provided an affidavit defending Phillipos.

“Robel’s mother is one of the most humanitarian and generous beings I know. Having experienced hardship as a refugee after escaping from an oppressive military regime, she has been working tirelessly to help others with similar experiences,” Mekuria said in an affidavit.

Martha Goldberg, a sponsored programs administrator at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, also defended Phillipos and stated that many employees of the International Institute of Boston knew the young man.

“I met Genet fifteen years ago as a coworker at the International Institute of Boston. I knew all about Robel as she would talk about him and many of the other staff members knew him. We were all proud of him because he was a really sweet, smart kid,” Goldberg testified in her affidavit.  [Smart?—ed]

For my critics!  I do have sympathy for Mom!

Readers, if you are having trouble finding the International Institute of Boston that’s because it is now “doing business as” the International Institute of New England.  It is another of the 300 plus subcontractors resettling refugees and providing services to “new Americans.”  I believe they are still a subcontractor of USCRI (remember them here yesterday).

Some of these contractors (top nine who have a monopoly) and subcontractors have changed their names over the years, why?  I assume it’s because somehow they got in trouble with federal grant money, but who knows, it could be innocent name changes.  Here in 2009, I reported that USCRI itself changed its name.  In any case it makes it harder for the average taxpaying citizen to keep up with them!

All of our posts on the Boston Marathon Bombing are archived here.

What’s wrong with this picture? Thousands swarm the Hill looking for amnesty while Iraqi refugees in Massachusetts find no work

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update April 11th:  Yikes! Here is another story that says Iraqi refugees in the US have a 67% unemployment rate, so hey Grover Norquist, champion of Open Borders for Business, hire an Iraqi (after all Americans get jobs that is)!

Over and over and over again we have heard the refrain for weeks (for months!)—we need more immigrant laborers (this in spite of the still extremely poor US job market)!   What the hell!  Then why are we seeing stories about Iraqi refugees who are about to end up in a homeless shelter for lack of work?

And, this is what really ticks me off—among those demonstrating today on Capitol Hill are at least two US government refugee resettlement contractors (two that I know of!).   The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (two of nine contractors who monopolize refugee resettlement), urged their groupies to go protest and demand legalization of the millions of workers who will make it even harder for Muna Al-Hamood and her husband to find work!

From WBUR Boston:

One of the ESL students is Muna Al-Hamood. She arrived in Massachusetts three months ago, after militants killed her son.

“I lost one of my sons,” she says in Arabic through tears. “I cannot imagine losing the rest of my children.”

Al-Hamood was a clothing designer in Iraq; now, she’s on the verge of homelessness. When I ask her for an interview, she looks at me skeptically, and asks, “What I am going to get out of this? Is my husband going to get a job?”

Her husband has not been able to find work since they’ve arrived. They can barely make ends meet. “I’m ready for my husband to work any kind of job just so that we don’t have to go to the shelter,” she says.

That fear of going to a homeless shelter is something new, according to resettlement agencies. [Let this damn agency spend their own privately raised money to keep them out of a shelter, or stop bringing them in—ed]

[…..]

Resettlement agencies help new immigrants from Day 1 — picking them up from the airport, showing them how to use the T, and vamping up their resumes.

Benedict-Drew: The government (you taxpayers) never give us enough money!  We are setting people up for poverty!

One of the largest agencies is the International Institute of New England in Boston’s Financial District. *[ They are a subcontractor of one of the other nine, USCRI—ed] The organization’s CEO and president, Carolyn Benedict-Drew, says part of the problem is that after the first month, refugees generally don’t receive rental help. The government gives them a monthly cash allowance — $428. (That amount goes up to $531 for a couple.)

“It is simply not enough,” Benedict-Drew says. “It’s never been enough, and it probably will never be enough. So, that is really a tremendous dilemma. And you almost feel like you’re setting people up for poverty. It is poverty. It’s a poverty level.” [ALMOST!  ALMOST!—ed]

Benedict-Drew says that first year in America is particularly rough for refugees because it’s tough to find a job, and there’s so little money in the pipeline.  

But, you are telling us we need more immigrant workers!!!

The article goes on to say we have a moral duty to Iraqis—then why are these very same contractors making legal refugees lives even more difficult by pushing for amnesty for illegals (undocumented Democrats!) who will take even more of the jobs that might have gone to Iraqis?

Endnote:  In its most recent report to Congress, the Office of Refugee Resettlement reports that 46% of Iraqis are unemployed and 95% are on food stamps.  Where is the morality in that?  Heck, Benedict-Drew draws a 6-figure salary maybe she could give Ms. Al-Hamood a little loan to tide her over and keep her out of a homeless shelter!

* Sometimes called the International Institute of Boston just to confuse you!