Tag: LIRS

Cut to the chase—refugee labor is cheap labor

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For goodness sake, let’s have the debate.

Do we need more low wage labor? 

That should be the debate.  Anything else is just mud being thrown around to confuse the taxpaying public and make people feel guilty about questioning our LEGAL immigration programs.
For instance, this story at something called ‘Workforce’ posits that refugees’ greatest contributions are that their hiring brings much-needed diversity to the work place—WTH!
Diversity! Like the diversity Muslim refugees bring when they file lawsuits against meatpackers for special prayer privileges in slaughter plants?  

And, just forget the notion that the US Refugee Admissions Program is a solely humanitarian effort on the part of the US—it is about the movement of labor around the world (and about Democrat voters), but not first about welcoming the stranger!

Let me repeat! If America needs cheap (compliant immigrant) labor, have that debate and leave the diversity/humanitarian mumbo-jumbo out of it!
Here is Workforce:

As immigration issues swirl around businesses seeking to hire foreign talent, a new guide published by the Tent Foundation is still touting the benefits of hiring refugees.

 

Ulukaya and Soros
Hamdi Ulukaya the CEO of Chobani Yogurt, here with George Soros discussing refugees, founded the Tent Foundation.

 

The “U.S. Employers’ Guide to Hiring Refugees” highlights the positive aspects businesses reap when hiring refugees. Diversity tops the list of what refugees bring to the workplace, according to Gideon Maltz, executive director of Tent Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works with businesses to help them integrate refugee workers into their workplace. Whether it’s experience or language, refugees can provide new insights from their respective countries.

The guide is here, written by the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service!

“A more diverse workforce fosters new ideas and innovations, which is necessary in our more competitive, global market,” Maltz said.

Finding those refugee workers poses a challenge, based on recent statistics.

[….]

Based on the Tent Foundation guide, a refugee is “an individual who is unable to return to his or her home country due to a well-founded fear of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, political opinion or social group.”

Employers have options beyond refugees if they want to diversify their workforce with foreign workers. Immigrants on an H-1B visa, which allows U.S. companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations, also bring with them their foreign experiences and knowledge.  [I’ve skipped most of the discussion about other legal immigration programs to bring in foreign workers. The reporter seems to be mixing them up with the refugee program anyway. Most refugees don’t come in with special skills.—ed]

[….]

Burke [Richard Burke, CEO of Envoy Global, an enterprise platform that works with companies to make the hiring and managing process of a global workforce easier]  reasoned that businesses could be putting more of an effort into introducing more immigrants because they see the benefit diversity brings to a company’s culture.

“To address the supply and demand imbalance employers are saying, ‘We have opportunities, we want to grow, we want to contribute to the economy,’ ” said Burke.

“But to do that we need the talent and the workers to do it. And the only way to do it is through foreign national talent.”

[….]

Envoy Global’s “2018 Immigration Trends Report” looks at opinions of employers on immigration and their hiring process. Based on the report, businesses that would like to implement this strategy are finding it difficult to do so in the face of the tougher immigration standards.

“Eighty-five percent of respondents say the U.S immigration program policies have impacted their ability to hire,” said Burke.

Contact the refugee contractors!

hartke with logo
It was the recently ousted Lutheran CEO Hartke who signed the deal with the Tent Foundation to write their hiring guide.

We already know from past reporting that some of the usual gang of nine refugee contractors***are working with global meat companies to help them find and retain cheap (compliant because they can’t go home!) refugee labor.
Workforce continues….

For potential employers that want to hire refugees, Maltz advises them to reach out to their local resettlement agency since those organizations can help with logistical details. Managers should also prepare to spend extra money on English as second language courses and other programs to help new workers acclimate to their new home.

“[It] may require some upfront investments but these are small in relation to the benefits refugees will bring to your company,” Maltz said.

Yup! They mention the “higher retention rates” of refugee laborers. Of course, because again, they can’t go home and are dependent on their handlers at the refugee contracting agencies for their other needs.
See more on the Tent Foundation, here.  And, I wrote about it here (working with Lutheran head hunters at LIRS)! 
So cut the crap, stop throwing the mud around, and have the debate about US labor shortages (does it exist and what is the best way to deal with it, if it is even true)!
 
***Here are the nine federal refugee contractors. They have been complaining as their regular paying client numbers (refugees) have declined during the Trump Administration.  They pretend their sole mission is humanitarian, but they work closely and receive funding from big global corporations in addition to their generous contributions from you—the taxpayer!
The original Refugee Act of 1980, that set up this monstrosity, envisioned a public-private partnership that over the years has almost completely morphed in to a federal program. Congress must reform the program and get these supposedly non-profit middlemen out of the process.
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with jobs, and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

US Refugee program is a kind of Ponzi-scheme that is failing

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They want to blame it all of course on Donald Trump (and Stephen Miller!), but the refugee slowdown has exposed the weakness of a scheme set up in 1979-1980 by then Senator Ted Kennedy (with Joe Biden) and Jimmy Carter.

NA/KENNEDY
The architects….

The whole program was sold as a public-private partnership implying that there would be an equal sharing of finances and responsibility, but over the years the public share (your tax ‘contributions’) has grown while the private share has withered.
So that now, with the per refugee head payment dropping as fewer refugee are admitted, the program is being exposed for what it has become….
It is a monopolistic conglomeration of supposed ‘religious’ and ‘humanitarian’ charities living almost exclusively on the federal dole. Their budgets are fully dependent on the next shipment of paying clients (aka refugees).
 

Come on Congress!  It is time to dump it or fix it.

I notice that with all the talk about reforming LEGAL immigration there is no talk of reforming the obviously seriously flawed USRAP!

The program is “under siege” say the refugee agencies and their media lackeys!

Rarely do I post twice on one story, but I told you about this one yesterday (here) and it is full of revealing information.  I see it is a ‘Religion News Service’ story that appears here in the National Catholic Reporter showcasing (again) that anti-Trump rally last month at the White House.
Do they really think the average American taxpayer will be moved by a photo of Muslims praying against the President as a publicity stunt?
 

Muslims praying at WH
The big banner on the right is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society protest march banner.   https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/01/28/church-world-service-and-hias-join-cair-to-protest-at-white-house/

Boo hoo! We Catholics are running out of your money!

National Catholic Reporter:

USCCB [US Conference of Catholic Bishops—ed] officials said they are still deciding how to move forward but already expect to close about 15 sites this year, shifting from 75 to as few as 60. Catholic Charities, the primary affiliate for the USCCB’s on-the-ground resettlement work, said that of the 700 full-time employees across its network who work on refugee resettlement, more than 300 are estimated to see a temporary layoff, permanent layoff or possible reassignment due to the refugee ban.

An April 2017 report from the Episcopal News Service said the Episcopal Church would cut its 31-member affiliate network by six in 2018.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said it had not closed any sites, though before she resigned earlier this week as its president and CEO, Linda Hartke confirmed the agency has made staff reductions at its headquarters. [This is especially funny because we know that many staff at headquarters quit due to Hartke’s poor management!—Now it is all Donald’s fault!—How convenient!—ed]

Maybe if the top dogs took pay cuts, and raised PRIVATE money, the lower level staff could be retained? 

Local organizations appear to bear the brunt of the cuts. [Sure they do, no one really expects the CEO’s to take pay cuts.—ed] Paula Torisk, deputy director of refugee resettlement for Catholic Charities San Antonio, which works with the USCCB’s program, said her office has laid off at least 23 people because of the various bans — around 30 percent to 35 percent of her staff.

unemployed
Lower level staff are unemployed because the whole refugee program is built (wrongly) as a Ponzi scheme.  https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2018/02/16/trump-administration-wrongly-blamed-for-closure-of-refugee-offices/

She said many of those who lost their jobs are, like Giri [refugee star of the story—ed], themselves refugees or former refugees who have since become U.S. citizens. Her office previously relied on their cultural knowledge and language skills but has been forced to hire translators in their absence.

“You’ve got staff taking on cases where they don’t speak the language,” said Torisk, who has worked with refugees since 1996. “I’ve heard other resettlement programs say, ‘How can we pay for [interpreters] if our funding is cut?’”

She also said that due to uncertainty surrounding the program, funding for the longer-term refugee assistance — such as providing English classes — is now doled out on a quarterly basis instead of annually throughout Texas.

There is much more, but you get my drift.
The whole 1980 system is based on an ever-expanding refugee flow to America and over the ensuing decades the contractors (below) got fat and lazy because federal money flowed like a river to them and they built fiefdoms with it!

I repeat: Where is Congress?

The nine refugee contractors “fighting for their survival”….
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)!  From most recent accounting, here.

The Tent Foundation hires Lutheran refugee contractor to write refugee hiring guide

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder of Chobani Yogurt (we mentioned their expansion in Twin Falls, Idaho, here recently), created a personal foundation launched at Davos (Switzerland) in 2016 he called The Tent Foundation.

clinton and Chobani
I’m using this photo because I’m intrigued by the fact that last night on two different Fox News programs focusing on Clinton’s past indiscretions, they used a clip from this event with Ulukaya. Why? Sending some sort of message to viewers? Or, just coincidence because it was a quick and easy video to find?  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgjqzO63XfM

To learn more about Ulukaya’s pitch to global corporations see his 2016 opinion piece published at CNN Money (watch the video!) where he says he has hired 600 refugees for his yogurt plants in New York and Idaho and that he has pledged to give half of his $1.4 billion personal wealth to refugee causes.

Now comes news that The Tent Foundation has hired Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service to pen a guide for their “member” companies (affiliated with Tent) to answer questions corporations have about hiring refugee labor.

Let me be clear:

We applaud global corporations (like those below) and uber-wealthy CEOs that send millions of their own dollars to care for refugees living in camps and in other difficult situations around the world.

However, when they rely on the federal taxpayer, through the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program, to deliver their potential workers to the US (to compete with Americans for jobs), it becomes our business.

For new readers, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is one of nine federal contractors*** hired and funded (on a per refugee-head basis) by the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS to place refugees in towns where citizens have no say in the matter and are generally kept in the dark about the process and plans for their communities.

LIRS, approximately 96% funded by taxpayer dollars, is at the moment in a tight spot due to internal turmoil.

We have also recently reported on two other LIRS side ‘deals’ with global corporations— the meatpackers JBS Swift and Tyson Foods.

hartke with logo

Now we hear that Ulukaya’s personal foundation, The Tent Foundation, has hired LIRS to write “a 15-page resource toolkit for employers laying out why they should hire refugees.”

According to a signed contract seen by RRW, the finished product was to be delivered to The Tent Foundation by the end of October.

It is unclear if that happened, or if it did, if the ‘guide’ will be available to the public.

Making a deal…..

Here, below, is a July e-mail provided by someone close to the arrangement from an obviously very pleased Linda Hartke, LIRS CEO, to staff members (recipient names removed by me).

From: Linda Hartke
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 3:05 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: RE: Recruitment of a contractor

For those who are not aware of the background on this project, the focus is the development of a 15 page resource toolkit for employers laying out why they should hire refugees, what are the legal and cultural issues to consider, how to go about it, and where to get help. The Tent Foundation is the foundation of the founder of Chobani yogurt who is himself a refugee and employs many refugees. They have many large corporate “members” related to the foundation, and their members have been hungry for such a resource.

While current LIRS staff will manage this project, the heavy lift of the research and writing will be done by a contractor as described below.

There is no formal contract or paperwork on the grant yet – but there is email communication confirming agreement on terms. We have asked them to proceed this week to finalize the necessary paperwork and begin the process to transfer funds. We did not provide a budget, but rather a fixed amount to produce the toolkit.

Congrats all, on this new funder for LIRS!
Linda
—
Linda Hartke
President and CEO | LHartke@lirs.org | 410-230-2762

 

Here (and below) are those companies and NGOs affiliated with Ulukaya’s foundation which wikipedia refers to as his “personal foundation.” You will surely recognize many global corporations on the list!  Don’t miss Soros Fund Management!

 

Screenshot (1091)

Screenshot (1092)

Screenshot (1093)

Screenshot (1094)

Screenshot (1095)

 

And, here are the non-profit’s working with The Tent Foundation including our old pals at ‘Welcoming America.‘

Click here for our complete archive on the community organizers at Welcoming America.

Screenshot (1096)

 

*** These are the nine federal resettlement contractors paid largely with your tax dollars to place refugees in hundreds of locations around the US.

Go here to see a recent accounting of their finances and CEO salaries:

Major refugee resettlement agency in meltdown?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sure sounds like it! 

We reported here that we had heard rumblings, but Breitbart News yesterday has all the gory details from a reliable source close to the organization—Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—headquartered in Baltimore, MD.

Read the bombshell story by Michael Patrick Leahy here.

‘Source: Claims of Financial Mismanagement, Fraud, and Harassment at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service Spark External Investigation’

Hartke and Bishop on Hill in March (2)
LIRS CEO Linda Hartke (left) with ELCA Bishop Eaton lobbying on the Hill for more refugees (aka paying clients) in March of this year.

My questions include:

~Will Trump’s federal government suspend LIRS (96% funded by taxpayer dollars) until the truth is learned?

~Will Congress have the energy and the guts to take a look at this?

~And, could this be the tip of the iceberg—is LIRS a one-off or could others of the nine federal contractors  have gotten loosey-goosey with their finances too?

After all when you are ‘doing good’ who would have the audacity to question how you handle free federal money, right?

~And, here is another: If proven true, what impact do these allegations have on LIRS subcontractors (aka affiliates)?

Just to remind longtime readers and for new readers arriving here today, there are nine organizations (supposedly non-profits)*** almost completely funded with US taxpayer dollars which distribute federal money to hundreds of subcontractors working in towns and cities across America where refugees are being placed.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is the parent organization to the offices listed below. So whatever happens in Baltimore could have a direct impact on these local “affiliates.”

For example, LSS-MN does not act independently of the Baltimore ‘mothership’ when it comes to resettling refugees. It is the Baltimore office that sends them cases and the money that comes along with the refugees.  Federal taxpayer dollars simply flow through LIRS headquarters to these subcontractors.  (At the heart of the allegations about federal grant funds is the issue of how much headquarters keeps of the millions of dollars it passes through.)

LIRS affiliates could see an impact if the allegations of financial wrong doing are significant enough for the federal agency (HHS in this case) to issue a ‘stop work order.’

Arkansas
Canopy of Northwest Arkansas, Fayetteville

Arizona
Refugee Focus, Phoenix, Tuscon

California
Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Service, Los Angeles

Colorado
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Denver, Colorado Springs, Greeley

Florida
Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida, Jacksonville
Lutheran Services Florida, Miami, Orlando, Tampa

Georgia
Lutheran Services of Georgia, Atlanta, Savannah

Illinois
RefugeeOne, Chicago

Maryland
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Hyattsville

Massachusetts
Ascentria Community Services, Westfield, Worcester

Michigan
Samaritas, Ann Arbor, Battle Creek, Grand Rapids, Troy

Minnesota
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Minneapolis, St. Cloud

Nebraska
Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Omaha

New Hampshire
Ascentria Community Services, Concord

New Mexico
Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, Albuquerque, Santa Fe

New York
Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Utica

North Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Raleigh

North Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota—Center for New Americans, Bismarck, Fargo, Grand Forks

Oregon
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Portland

Pennsylvania
Bethany Christian Services, Allentown, Lancaster, Philadelphia

South Carolina
Lutheran Services Carolinas, Columbia, Charleston

South Dakota
Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, Sioux Falls

Texas
Refugee Services of Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Amarillo, Houston

Virginia
Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, Falls Church

Washington
Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Tacoma, Vancouver

Wisconsin
Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan, Madison, Milwaukee

When you read Breitbart’s investigative piece you might not have much concern for the internal personnel machinations/squabbles/bullying/firings/ etc, but like me, you might find anything that suggests the misuse of your tax dollars compelling. Pistachio nuts! (you will have to read Leahy’s piece to see what that means!)

Here is one bit of the detailed report from a source to Breitbart (source refers to LIRS as LIaRS):

Over the six year period from 2011 through 2016, LIaRS revenue from the U.S. government grew from $30 million to almost $65 million. During that time, under CEO Hartke’s oversight, the headquarter’s spending exploded from $8.8 million to $13.5 million with a staff of less than 100. Hartke’s salary also jumped from $182,270 to more than $293,000 last year (note this does not include her 9 percemt employer retirement plan contribution, 100% employer paid health care, and paid time off).

Given that USG revenue accounts for almost 95 cents of every LIaRS dollar, the only way Hartke could continue to spend on herself and the headquarters is through charging the USG an indirect cost recovery rate on the entire amount of their grants, even though 90 percent of the funds were simply passed through to subawards to the dozens of independent affiliates that actually do the refugee resettlement work (i.e. Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains, RefugeeOne of Chicago, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, etc.).

This is direct contradiction to the Code of Federal Regulations which only allows the ICR to be charged on the first $25,000 of each subaward. LIaRS charges it on all the money, thereby giving them millions of dollars per year to fund their headquarters for doing nothing. As an example, in 2016 of the $54 million in government funds received by LIaRS, more than $55 million was sent out in subawards to the independent affiliates to do the actual resettlement work … but LIaRS managed to charge the government the ICR rate of over 10 percent on that $55 million which brings over $5 million to be kept in Baltimore for Hartke and her office.

If I may be so bold as to tell the Inspector General at Health and Human Services what to do….

….it would be prudent for the IG to issue a Stop Work Order.

If the allegations of inflating direct costs are true and the commensurate lack of internal controls are found, LIRS financial practices raise serious questions about their ability to function as a federal resettlement agency (receiving millions of dollars appropriated by Congress!) at least until this mess is cleared up.

So what can you do?

Wilmot Collins
Note that the new refugee mayor of Helena, Montana is on this board. Ask him what he thinks about the allegations!  http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/08/liberian_refugee_wilmot_collins_elected_mayor_of_helena_montana.html

Tell Donald Trump to suspend LIRS while the investigation continues.

And….

After reading the Breitbart expose’ you know that LIRS Board of Directors has launched an internal investigation in addition to whatever the federal government is doing.

See the Board members here and below.  If you are of the Lutheran faith you need to have a word with anyone of them you know plus speak up to your local pastors!

From LIRS website:

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service’s board of directors sets the organization’s mission goals and ensures that we have the resources, leadership and oversight necessary to carry them out. Our president and leadership team guides the day-to-day operations of the organization as we work toward achieving our mission goals with integrity, courage and fiscal responsibility.

Board Members
The board is composed of 15 members who have knowledge of and commitment to refugees and immigrants. LIRS believes strength is found in diversity and that refugees and immigrants need a voice at the table of influence. All branches of the Lutheran Church as well as other denominations are represented on the board. There are also three former refugees or first generation immigrants on the board. The LIRS president is an ex-officio member of the board.

Executive Committee

At-Large Members

Leadership Team Members

President — Linda Hartke
Contact: president@lirs.org or call 410-230-2785

Chief Operating Officer — Gary Gold-Moritz
Vice President for Programs — Kay Bellor
Vice President for Development, Outreach and Communications — Staci Coomer
Chief Information Officer — William Bisbee

To contact a member of the Leadership Team, email lirs@lirs.org or call 410-230-2700.

 

See my complete archive on LIRS here.

***These are the nine federal contractors receiving millions of tax payer dollars annually. Could any of the others not be following federal grant reporting rules?  Come on Congress, time to get serious about reviewing the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program and how the contractors are spending our money!

 

 

ORR embroiled in controversy about illegal alien minors getting abortions

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is yet another reason that Congress should review the entire US Refugee Program with an eye to trashing it or at least reforming it.

How is it that the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement is in the business of housing illegal alien minors (so-called unaccompanied children) in the first place, let alone be in the position of facilitating abortions when the kids get pregnant?

They are not refugees!

Screenshot (160)
Obama’s Director of ORR, Bob Carey, told Politico that he signed off on the use of federal funds for abortions three or four times a month during his tenure. Pictured here with Linda Hartke, CEO of the Lutheran resettlement agency which receives federal funding for unaccompanied minors.

Here is the story at Politico which I haven’t the time or energy to extensively analyze and comment on.

The gist of it is that the present ORR Director is saying the feds are not going to facilitate abortions for ‘minors’ in their care while the previous Obama Director (Bob Carey) did.

Of course all those interviewed for the story are lined up against Trump’s appointee.

AUSTIN, Texas — The Trump administration is preventing an undocumented, pregnant teenager detained in a Brownsville refugee shelter from getting an abortion in a policy shift with big implications for hundreds of other pregnant, unaccompanied minors held in such shelters.

She is not the first to be stopped, according to advocates who work with undocumented teenagers.

For the last seven months, the Health and Human Services Department has intervened to prevent abortions sought by girls at federally funded shelters, even in cases of rape and incest and when the teen had a way to pay for the procedure. The agency has instead forced minors to visit crisis pregnancy centers, religiously affiliated groups that counsel women against having abortions, according to documents obtained by POLITICO, interviews with sources involved in the Brownsville case and those familiar with the agency’s policy.

In some cases, a senior HHS official has personally visited or called pregnant teens to try to talk them out of ending their pregnancies.

“There is a pattern of unconstitutional overreach of power in a minor’s abortion decision,” said the teen’s lawyer, Brigitte Amiri of the ACLU.

The ACLU brought suit on Friday on behalf of the 17-year-old in the Brownsville shelter….

[….]

“What’s especially disturbing for us about this case, is that the child is in the custody of ORR [the Office of Refugee Resettlement], so she has no other choice, and she is stuck in a form of custody or detention,” said Michelle Brane of the Women’s Refugee Commission.

The “child” in question arrived illegally across our border, we expect her (all of them!) to be held in custody! But, that custody needs to be under a different federal agency—not one whose mission is supposed to be to care for refugees, not to care for illegal aliens!

Continue reading here.

By the way, you need to know that at least two federal contractors—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—receive money from you to take care of some of the ‘children.’  The UACs cost the US taxpayer at least $1 billion a year.