Lancaster, PA: Church World Service puts on sob story event, never mentions their federal boodle!

01/29/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Church World Service, one of the nine major federal resettlement contractors***, paraded ‘refugees’ before the public in a media event designed to put-down the President (and by extension, you, who voted for him!).
This isn’t pick-on-Church-World-Service week, but they seem to be conspicuously out in front leading the Open Borders political activism (along with their friends at HIAS) recently.
See my previous posts, here and here (see if your church is a member of CWS demonstrating with CAIR).
In Lancaster (Amish country) they put on one of many events as part of their first anniversary bash-Trump campaign to gain support for more refugee admissions (for more paying clients for them).

Here is Lancaster Online:

Three years ago, Palestinian writer Emtiaz Zourob said goodbye to her husband and two children and fled Gaza after being warned her life was in danger because of her views.

U.S. authorities granted her asylum and led her to believe her family would be able to join her in Lancaster, where she was resettled.

Palestinian in Lancaster — CWS’s Palestinian poster girl can’t understand how America could have elected “this man.”

Then, with election of Donald Trump as president, Zourob’s hopes for family reunification crashed. [Family reunification=chain migration.—ed]

On Saturday, one year after Trump suspended admittance of people from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Palestinians, Zourob told her story at a Church World Service forum on refugees.

About 60 attended the panel discussion at Lancaster Theological Seminary. Refugees from Congo, Somalia and Sudan also told their stories.

I have a lot of questions about Zourob’s story. First and foremost she must have gotten in to the US on her own (illegally?) in order to have applied for asylum. How did she do that? Who paid her way? What is the real story here? And, then if her family is in Egypt (no longer in ‘dangerous’ Gaza) surely she can join them there.
Lancaster Online continues….

Zourob, in an interview, said that in 2016 her husband, son and 10-year-old daughter applied for asylum at the U.S. embassy in Cairo and expected to obtain visas granting them entry.

Zourob, 37, hoped she would be seeing them soon and told friends in Gaza she liked the United States.

“I told them I feel like I’m home because all the people here, they are very nice with me,” she said. “But after Trump, I’m not sure about this actually, if it’s still my home or not.”

“It’s very difficult to explain, but the American people, they choose this man to lead America,” she said.

Go here for more on CWS’s Lancaster PR campaign.
A Church World Service rep once told me that they get the first refugees planted (no he didn’t use that word) and then follow-up in subsequent years with helping bring in the family.
For additional information see our archive on Lancaster (America’s refugee capital?) by clicking here.

CWS fuck — Do your tax dollars pay for political action by ‘loving’ Christians like this one?

Why is Church World Service really so worked up?

The answer is that they are paid millions of dollars annually from the federal treasury for their ‘Christian good works’ and Trump is cutting off the money train.
How much exactly are they getting from the Department of State, the Department of Health and Human Services, HUD, Homeland Security, and the Defense Department? You can find out at USASpending.gov.
First I looked at their federal grants and contracts for FY2008 to FY2018 and this is what I found (screenshot of first page below):
Forget ‘humanitarianism!’ This is about M-O-N-E-Y!
Nearly $450 MILLION since 2008 for Church World Service alone!

Screenshot (174) — This is just the first page of many pages!

So what did they get (involuntarily) from your wallets in FY2017 (end of Obama and beginning of Trump presidencies.) Screenshots below are of three pages for FY17:

Screenshot (175)

Now, see why they are so upset!
Look at USA Spending for the first 3 months of FY18 (Fiscal years begin Oct. 1 of previous year).
For 3 months, only $171,950 in sub-grants!
Yikes! No wonder they are working so hard against this President!

Screenshot (181)

***Church World Service is just one of the nine (and not one of the largest recipients of your generosity)! This was so much fun, I think I’ll try to do more of these!
The number in parenthesis is the portion of their budget that you involuntarily pay!

Forget about their pawn Zourob, they cannot survive without federal boodle!

Heritage report: since 2002, 61 US refugees have engaged in terrorist activities

07/06/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily on the Heritage Foundation report entitled, “The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program: A Roadmap for Reform.”
(Also, Fox News wrote about the report here as well.)
Hohmann:

At least 61 people who came to the United States as “refugees” engaged in terrorist activities between 2002 and 2016, according to a new report authored by the Heritage Foundation.

Sheila Mastropietro, a resettlement worker in Lancaster, PA yesterday called it “ridiculous” that a refugee could be a terrorist: http://www.ydr.com/story/news/2017/07/05/5-things-you-probably-didnt-know-refugees-pa/450894001/ Mastropietro is front row right without head covering in NYT story featuring Lancaster: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/05/us/lancaster-refugees-trump-travel-ban.html

The report comes in the wake of the Supreme Court’s reinstatement of much of President Trump’s travel ban, and it also suggests that it’s impossible to vet Muslim refugees who may have no connections to known terrorist organizations but get radicalized after they arrive in the United States.

The Heritage Foundation identified scores of refugees, including many who came prior to 2002, as having taken part in activities ranging from lying to investigators about terror plots, to actually taking part in them. The report, aimed at reforming the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, or USRAP, calls for stricter limits and restrictions on refugees.

Under the current system, set by the Refugee Act of 1980, the president sets the annual cap on numbers of refugees allowed into the U.S. and Congress provides the funding. The State Department then contracts with nine private resettlement agencies, paying them millions of dollars per year to seed U.S. cities with Third Worlders.***

Since 1980 more than 3 million refugees [Ten Pittsburghs!—ed] have come to the United States, and more than 1 million of them have come from Muslim-dominated countries such as Somalia, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and Sudan. Countries such as Burma and Australia have been more recently unloading their unwanted Muslim minorities on the U.S. and other Western countries.

“The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program should not be used as pretext to advocate for a global right to migrate nor is it a solution to conflict,” the study concludes. “Instead, the U.S. refugee admission program should be reformed to better advance U.S. interests.”

Continue here as Hohmann lists some of the refugee Islamic terrorist cases.
I confess, I haven’t read the report. Would someone tell me if it includes any mention of the system where contractors are paid by the head to place refugees in unsuspecting cities and towns. If these middlemen are not removed from the process there will NEVER be real reform.
Tell the President what you think!
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities:

Administrative tweeks may help school systems cope with refugee kids, but….

02/02/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….if members of Congress do not grow spines and begin to revamp/rewrite the Refugee Act of 1980, anything President Trump does now will be lost in 4 or 8 years.

And, whether Trump’s EO does even half of what it promises will depend on who becomes the Asst. Sec. of State for Population, Refugees and Migration, and who becomes the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS).

Here is Betsy McCaughey writing at the New York Post about beleaguered school districts coping with large numbers (and costs) of refugee children the school system wasn’t expecting (due to the secrecy surrounding their placement).
I don’t have time to link all of the places we have identified in the past having such problems, but search RRW for Lancaster, PA, Amarillo, TX, Manchester, NH and Utica, NY.
New York Post (hat tip: Judy and others):

Public schools beleaguered by waves of refugees will get a breather thanks to President Trump’s executive order suspending refugee entry for 120 days. And under Trump’s new policy, when the US reopens its doors to refugees, local communities will be consulted. That beats the Obama administration’s dictatorial approach, which has overwhelmed many school districts. [Bush and all the Presidents before him did nothing to allow communities any say either—-ed]

Until now, refugee children have been placed in districts with little or no advance notice. Arriving from countries like Congo, Burma, Somalia and Syria, they speak no English and bear the signs of trauma from their ordeals. They need interpreters, counselors and attention. But often they’re placed in the poorest school districts — which can least afford them.

aclu-lancaster-lawsuit-2e16d0ba-fill-735x490 — Refugee students with their stable of ACLU lawyers sue ‘welcoming’ Lancaster, PA for not giving refugee students a better education. http://www.phillyvoice.com/refugees-suing-pennsylvania-school-district/

School authorities try to be welcoming, but no good deed goes unpunished. The American Civil Liberties Union is targeting these communities, claiming they’re not doing enough for refugees. On top of the costs of educating the refugees, towns are getting slapped with lawsuits and legal fees.

The State Department decides where refugees are settled. The feds pay nonprofits such as Catholic Charities to rent and furnish apartments for refugees, enroll them in English class and put their children in public school.

In New York, upstate cities like Buffalo, Syracuse and Utica are magnets for resettlement because the $900-a-month housing stipend goes a lot farther than in New York City or on Long Island.

Buffalo has absorbed 10,000 refugees in the last decade. At Lafayette High School there, 45 languages are spoken, 70 percent of students are just learning English and nearly 40 percent missed years of schooling before arriving.

More here.
BTW, George Soros is one of the ACLU’s biggest sugar-daddies!
See tag ‘Where is Congress’ on this and other refugee-related issues (hint: most are hiding!).

Lancaster, PA school district didn't cave to ACLU, appealed refugee students case to higher court

01/02/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

https://www.aclupa.org/

In my previous post I noted that the media (the New York Times) is working overtime to sell the public on the notion that everything is just peachy in Lancaster with the decades-old refugee program there. Then we see stories like this one that indicate at least some segments of the community are not thrilled at all—namely the school system.
BTW, see my Ten Things your town needs to know when ‘welcoming’ refugees and see that the first great impact on your community will most likely be in the school system.
Look how much this lawsuit filed by the ACLU is costing Lancaster taxpayers! If your town becomes a new ‘welcoming’ site, be prepared for unanticipated costs like these!
From Keystone Crossroads (hat tip: Joanne):

About 17,000 of the refugees arriving each year in the U.S. are children, yet their education — in particular, how public schools might accommodate them — plays a surprisingly minor role in placing families.

Federal law says public schools have to adjust to meet any number of students’ varying needs, including overcoming language barriers.

But that doesn’t always happen.

A few lawsuits have been filed in recent years on behalf of student refugees suffering the consequences of systematic shortcomings.

Schools have settled out of court in most cases.

Not Lancaster.

[….]

Lawyers for the Pennsylvania ACLU and Philadelphia-based Education Law Center sued the School District of Lancaster last summer.

The lawsuit claims that, despite the city’s robust tradition of resettlement, several teenage refugees waited months to enroll in public school. Ultimately, they were denied outright or diverted to magnet school Phoenix Academy, which has less support for nonnative English speakers than mainstream McCaskey High School.

[….]

In the meantime, a judicial panel in Philadelphia is considering Lancaster’s appeal. (See that story here)

[….]

Whether the district’s on the hook for any expenses depends on how the case turns out.

Defense attorneys’ bills are at about $150,000 so far, according to the district’s business administrator Matthew Przywara. The ACLU’s costs are approaching $2 million.

But Lancaster’s insurer has indicated it won’t pay out more than $100,000 for this lawsuit, district officials say.

There is more, continue reading here.
If the ACLU prevails be forewarned for refugee resettlement to your town to become even more expensive!
Click here for more on Lancaster, PA. Someone should do a study of the negative impact on this longtime resettlement site.

BT! Church World Service working hard to get Syrian Muslims placed in Lancaster, PA

01/02/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

BT=Before Trump
This is the first of two posts (second one is here) on Lancaster, PA this morning. I’ve been interested in Lancaster ever since that city’s refugee program was linked to Church World Service’s (CWS) placement of refugees in my county seat. Those were mostly Meshketian (Russian Turkish Muslims) back in 2007.
Five years later, I traveled to Lancaster to a meeting of the refugee industry there—the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement was meeting with refugee contractors and advocates in 2013. A federal ORR employee shocked me by referring to any of the communities questioning the program as “pockets of resistance.” He was happy to tell the gathering that Pennsylvania was ‘welcoming’ and didn’t have any PORs.

cws-mccullough-arrest — Church World Service does not just resettle refugees, but they advocate for illegal aliens as well. CWS CEO Rev. John McCullough being arrested in Washington, DC protesting in support of Obama’s executive amnesty. Photo and story here: http://njfon.org/2015/04/08/faith-groups-challenge-fifth-circuit-court-on-presidents-immigration-actions/ McCullough pulls down an annual salary of over $300,000 a year from his CWS work and from “related organizations.” Page 13- 14 http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2015/134/080/2015-134080201-0c44e710-9.pdf

If you would like to get some background on Lancaster before reading this below, click here for our Lancaster archive.
This is the news that appeared in the New York Times and reposted here in Vermont newspaper. Church World Service (with the NYT) is trying so hard to make everything look so perfect in Lancaster. But, it isn’t and you will see what I mean in my next post.

Their [Syrian family—ed] imminent arrival explains all the commotion inside this slate-colored house in the small city of Lancaster, in south-central Pennsylvania. The state may have gone to Donald Trump, who likened the Syrian resettlement program to a “a great Trojan horse” for terrorists. But he isn’t president yet.

[….]

He [Josh, CWS’s 26 year old housing guy—ed] scours a government checklist of housing requirements for a resettlement [Contractors sign contracts to provide essential items for the refugees’ new home—ed], mindful that whatever he spends is deducted from a refugee’s one-time government grant of no more than $1,125. A family’s combined grants must cover its rent and other expenses until the nonprofit has helped the adults acquire Social Security numbers and jobs.

I want you to know (and the NYT doesn’t) that it is $1,125 per family member, so the Syrian family of 6 being discussed here will get $6,750 (plus welfare) and that CWS will get another approximately $6,750 as their share (of your tax dollars) to resettle this family (for their salaries and overhead).

Such encounters [Josh meets a refugee at Walmart***] happen often in Lancaster, whose rich history of acceptance is rooted, in part, in the influence of the Mennonites, Amish and other faiths. A glimpse of the local worldview came in January when a supportive rally of more than 200 people drowned out a much smaller anti-immigrant protest outside the Church World Service office in Lancaster. [See our report on the resistors rally, here.]

Sheila Mastropietro, the group’s longtime supervisor in Lancaster, took heart in the moment. It reflected a communal understanding of both the global refugee crisis and the rigorous screening process that refugees undergo before coming to the United States. [The communal understanding is wearing thin as you will see in my next post.—ed]

The big question for the resettlement contractors is: What will Trump do and when will he do it?

Still, given a president-elect who seems averse to the country’s modest commitment to refugee relocation, Mastropietro says, “We don’t know what to expect.”

[….]

Last fiscal year, the Lancaster office of the Church World Service helped to resettle 407 of the 85,000 refugees admitted to this country; this fiscal year, its target is 550 of a hoped-for 110,000.

“We are acting as if the numbers are going to be the same — until we hear something different,” she says.

Lancaster a happy “medley of cultures” (then why did Lancaster County go 57% for Trump):

Decades of resettlement work have transformed the Lancaster area into a medley of cultures so rich that Amer Alfayadh, 34, a senior case manager, struggles to name them all: “Syrians, Iraqis, Somalis, Congolese, Ukrainians, Belorussians, people from Kazakhstan. Then, of course, Lebanese, Palestinians. Bhutanese, Nepalese, Burmese, Sri Lankans …”

***I would love to know what the deal is with Walmart. Wherever I traveled on my middle America tour this past summer, I heard that Walmart was a gathering place for Muslim refugees. Is Walmart giving them gift cards or other goodies? Does anyone know?