Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, rebrands, no longer wants to be tagged as Lutheran

04/06/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Very interesting! This is not the first refugee resettlement contractor that has changed its name over the years.
Previously we learned that the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society no longer wanted to be known for being Hebrew, see here. They are now HIAS!

LSS of Michigan—gone! Now Samaritas

And, here we see a Lutheran organization dropping the Lutheran and changing its name to reflect a broader image—they will be called Samaritas—-so (LOL!) of course new folks will immediately know what they are all about with that name!
I think the explanations they give are phony-baloney and I can guess two (maybe three) other reasons that the name change is happening:
First, I’m guessing Jews and Lutherans have complained about what those organizations have been doing in the name of their faiths and secondly, I wonder if Muslim refugees are reluctant to be resettled by Jews and Lutherans (fearing perhaps proselytization***). Or maybe they are now just going to make it harder for new critics to find information on them.
I can only dream it was because the ACLU finally began to take notice of the separation of church and state issue with these federal ‘religious’ resettlement contractors being almost exclusively funded by taxpayer dollars.
Remember too, LSS Michigan’s image was a bit tarnished by that housing funny-business we mentioned here recently.
Here is the brief news story with the nonsensical explanation for the name change which took place today:

(NEWSCHANNEL 3) – One of Michigan’s largest social service and refugee resettlement agencies is changing its name to better reflect its mission.

Lutheran Social Services of Michigan has been leading the way for bringing refugees here to escape conflict. Tuesday they are holding a state-wide celebration to usher in their new name.

They will now be known as Samaritas.

Officials say internal research revealed many people didn’t seek the more than 80-year-old organization for work or services because they weren’t Lutheran. [Were Muslims reluctant?—ed]

It has hired and served individuals of all faiths and ethnicities, so they are changing the name to reflect that.

***Illegal by the way according to the US State Department, see here.

Two (more) state legislatures attempting to wrest some control from feds for refugee resettlement

03/26/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

South Carolina moved one step closer recently to advance a bill to try to get some control over who is being resettled in the state, and in Michigan bills were introduced to do the same.
I know it should be my job to explain the ins and outs of the various bills and attempt to predict what will happen with them, but honestly I don’t have the will power (or the legal skills!) to sort through it all. So, instead, I’ll give you a couple of news accounts from this week (AB–After Belgium) for you to read yourself.
South Carolina…

Mark Wineka/Salisbury Post Ted Goins, president and chief executive officer of Lutheran Services Carolinas, headquartered in Salisbury, oversees an organization of more than 1,600 employees and an annual budget of about $115 million. — Ted Goins, CEO of Lutheran Services Carolinas told Think Progress: “South Carolina has a long history of welcoming those seeking refuge…” Well, actually no it doesn’t, it is one of the least refugee-populated states in the US (up until now).

First, check out what Think Progress says about the South Carolina initiative. The closest they come to mentioning that Lutheran Social Services is a government contractor is to say they have been “tasked” with the job of getting refugees established in the state. No mention of the millions of your tax dollars paying them for their ‘task.’
Needless to say, if the South Carolina bill would become law, it will have a chilling effect on resettlement in the state as the Lutheran federal contractor could be held liable for crimes committed by their clients.
It is good to read publications like Think Progress from time to time. You know it is a publication of the Center for American Progress (Soros, Clinton, John Podesta).
There is another article with wailing and moaning about the bill here. For once, the contractors are on the defense.
Then there is the new effort in Michigan.
See Leo Hohmann writing at World Net Daily yesterday for the skinny on that pushback.
After telling us all the troubles Michigan is having with a rapidly expanding Muslim population, he reports that a citizens group (a pocket of resistance) has formed to push back. Here is WND:

Dearborn_Mosque_Michigan — Mosques are mushrooming in Michigan, this one in Dearborn.

That is sparking an organized backlash from Michigan residents.

A citizens’ group called Secure Michigan has formed as a watchdog over the refugee resettlement program in the state. Secure Michigan issued a statement Tuesday after the jihadist attack on Brussels, Belgium, that killed 34 people and injured 200. The statement urged Michigan GOP Gov. Rick Snyder to renew his opposition to President Obama’s Syrian refugee program.

Obama wants to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S., about half of them in Michigan.

All of this has put pressure on state lawmakers to do something to slow down the flow of Third World refugees into Michigan.

State Rep. Jim Runestad, R-White Lake, has answered the call. He introduced legislation to make refugee placements in Michigan both safe and more transparent, while also giving local government a voice in the process as required by federal immigration law.

“House Bills 5528 and 5529 will protect both our communities and refugees entering our communities.

Continue reading here. Then see our complete archive going back to 2007 on Michigan, here. For more on South Carolina over the years, go here.

Michigan: Housing funny-business involving Lutheran Social Services

03/25/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Over the years we have gotten whiffs of ‘strange doings’ going on between landlords and federal refugee resettlement contractors and this story from Battlecreek, MI gives us a tantalizing peek into how the ‘humanitarian’ Lutheran Social Services of Michigan operates.
All I know is that, please watch for housing problems in refugee overloaded cities.
You will see refugees placed in slums, apartments with more residents than local zoning allows, conflicts with neighbors, landlords waking up to what they got into and trying now to get out, cozy relations between refugee contractors and certain landlords, competition between American poor and disabled and refugees for limited housing, and the list goes on. In fact, you will see even more competition this year as the contractors are expected to find places for the 85,000 refugees Obama has promised America.

Sam Beals LSSM — Sam Beals is the CEO of Lutheran Social Services Michigan. Since the article never names who the spokesperson is for LSSM in the housing dispute, the next best thing is to identify the head honcho. https://www.lssm.org/lssm/about-us/leadership

Here is the news from WWMT.com. This is the kind of story some local Michigan activist, concerned with too many refugees coming to the state, should dig into. I bet there is a lot more than is being said here! Emphasis below is mine:

BATTLE CREEK, Mich. (NEWSCHANNEL 3) – Refugees and community organizers say more than 60 refugee families received notices that their apartment leases would not be renewed.

[….]

“At the time the letter was sent, the apartment complexes had received information which caused the complexes to believe that the families/residents who received the latter had too many residents occupying the apartment units,” wrote Campbell’s lawyer, David Zebell.

The article reports that the landlord changed his mind and refugees can stay, but here is more:

Ginger Dowdle, a Battle Creek community organizer said she first became aware of the notices when an middle-eastern refugee approached her with concerns.

She said Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, which helps organize and place the refugees, did not challenge the notices, but instead, told the refugees about an option to buy homes recently acquired by the landlord of River and River Oaks Apartments. [That is the same landlord with whom they are having problems now.—ed]

“I tried to make them [refugees] aware, that if this is happening to them now and there’s no reason for them to be evicted, I would be very careful getting involved with this land contract for a home,” she said. [By the way, one of the things resettlement contractors brag about is that refugees are buying homes, do they get special government funded deals?—ed]

Dowdle said that a representative from Lutheran Social Services of Michigan indicated that LSS told refugees they would have to move out in one year, something refugees say never happened.

A spokesperson for LSSM defended the organization’s response to the notices.

[….]

As for community organizer Ginger Dowdle, she is in the process of making sure all the refugees know about the reversal in policy, and their rights.

“I feel like this has been going on for quite some time,” she said, expressing disappointment with both apartment management and LSSM.

There is more here.
I wondered if LSSM was running out of housing and thus trying to move some previous ‘clients’ into homes so that they could be sure to have apartments in order to keep the flow of new paying clients coming into the city.
Has anyone asked LSSM for its FY2016 R & P Abstracts? Go to the handy list of resettlement contractor offices around the country, find the one closest to you and ask for their FY2016 R & P Abstract. The Abstract will tell you how many the refugee contractor thinks they can handle this year (from what countries) and what amenities your town is offering (which might be a surprise to you!).

Colorado Springs Councilman pounced upon for proposing refugee resolution

03/09/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is happening across the country, local city and county governments are passing resolutions in an attempt to gain at least information about who is being placed in their communities through the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and the contractors hired by Washington to get them set up with their social services (aka welfare).
I’m coming in in the middle of this story where apparently Councilman Pico had already signaled his desire to promote a resolution for Colorado Springs.

Floyd Preston (left) is the program director for Lutheran Social Services/LSS Rocky Mountains. He says his agency has been named a “premier” resettlement contractor, but we are not told by whom! Photo: http://photos.blacktie-colorado.com/event/lfs-seeds-of-good-deeds/l1010563/

Lutherans doing the pouncing!
(See map we just posted, here, and see that the Lutherans monopolize the resettlement in Greeley and Colorado Springs).
Here is the news at The Gazette:

The furor over City Councilman Andres Pico’s proposal to “declare opposition” to relocating refugees to Colorado Springs continued Tuesday, with 10 people lambasting the idea, as others did Monday when Pico’s resolution was introduced.

Lutheran Family Services has welcomed refugees to the city since 1980, noted spokesman Floyd Preston. “We have been extremely successful at doing so; the Colorado Springs office has been named a premier (resettlement program).”

[….]

Vicki Witte said she has mentored refugee families. “Refugees are some of my closest friends. I’m sure they’ve taught me far more than I’ve taught them. Two things Mr. Pico really wants are notification and a good vetting system. Mr. Pico, those two things are already in place. You need not worry.” [And, by the way, why does the US taxpayer bear responsibility for helping Ms. Witte find friends and learn things?—ed]

I will bet a buck that Councilman Pico has never been included in the advance preparation of the R & P Abstract that the Lutheran contractor prepares every year for Colorado Springs. And, I’ll bet he has never even seen one—the refugee contractors have been instructed to not give this document to anyone! Secrecy is the watchword of this program! The document will give notification about those to be placed in their towns. More on Abstracts here.
At a minimum, Lutheran Family Services should turn over the FY2016 R & P Abstract and be willing to submit the planning process for FY2017 to public hearings held by the city council.

Since Colorado is a Wilson-Fish state…

…. Councilman Pico should be looking for support at the State level to encourage the state to be a plaintiff in a States’ Rights case being prepared by the Thomas More Law Center. See one of many posts on Wilson-Fish here. The gist of it is, in those states the refugee program is run (unconstitutionally) by a non-profit group like LSS and the feds thus eliminating any role for elected officials to protect the local and state taxpayers’ money going to programs to benefit refugees.
Go here for our archive on Colorado. Grassroots activists should be looking to see which Colorado politicians are getting donations from companies (like meatpackers!) who are always on the hunt for cheap immigrant labor. Do not be sidetracked by the ‘humanitarian’ propaganda (“seeds of good deeds”) surrounding this program!

Lutheran refugee contractor convinces SD legislator to withdraw bill

02/09/2016 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ho hum! No real surprise here. A South Dakota legislator had introduced a bill that would have attempted to rein-in the refugee program in that state, but Betty Oldencamp, Lutheran Social Services of SD Prez convinced him they were taking very good care of the citizens of South Dakota and that there wouldn’t be terrorists and other undesirables coming to SD through the program.
The bill was unlikely to go anywhere because the REPUBLICAN governor was all for more refugees colonizing the state anyway.
Since South Dakota is a Wilson-Fish state, he has a ready-made opportunity to sue the federal government using a states’ rights argument, here, and has not taken it. A surefire way to find out where your governor stands on refugees in twelve US states is whether any of them agree to be a plaintiff on the lawsuit crafted by the Thomas More Law Center. So far, no brave governor is willing to defend the Constitution.

map-refugees-distorted — This very cool map shows the states getting more refugees as a percentage of their populations. North and South Dakota are by far the most disproportionate. Idaho and New Hampshire not far behind. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2015/05/14/36144-refugees-admitted-to-us-in-first-seven-months-of-fy2015/

I’ll betcha that there are some powerful special interests, big businesses, the Chamber of Commerce making sure they get a continuous supply of cheap labor flowing to SD! Security, economic stability and cultural cohesiveness be damned. Follow the money! Find out which business interests are donating to elected officials!

LSS South Dakota is rich!

By the way, LSS South Dakota is rolling in YOUR money. Check out USA Spending.gov. Yikes! Almost $40 MILLION of your tax dollars have gone (via grants and sub-grants) to this one state ‘religious’ non-profit since 2007.
From Rapid City Journal:

House Bill 1158, which sought to give the South Dakota governor the power to keep refugees out of the state, is dead.

The proposed law has been tabled by its lead sponsor, state Rep. Scott Craig, R-Rapid City.

BettyOldenkamp36 — Betty Oldencamp, President of LSS South Dakota convinced legislators that they have everything under control. What a coincidence! Oldencamp is on the Board of Directors of the Chamber of Commerce in Sioux Falls. http://www.siouxfallschamber.com/board-of-directors.cfm

“That’s a nice way to say the sponsor withdrew the bill,” Craig said in a phone interview Monday, adding that HB 1158, which was scheduled for a committee hearing on Monday, will not come up again during this legislative session.

Craig said he made the decision to abandon the bill after a weekend conversation with his bill’s state Senate co-sponsor, Sen. Bruce Rampelberg, R-Rapid City, and Betty Oldencamp, president of Lutheran Social Services.

Apart from granting the governor extraordinary powers, HB 1158 would have created an infrastructure within the South Dakota Department of Social Services to monitor and coordinate the resettlement of refugees, a function that Lutheran Social Services already performs.

“Everything that bill attempted to secure, they already do, so it’s unnecessary,” Craig said. “We’ve got a phenomenal process. Everything (Oldencamp) described is very thorough.”

Continue reading here.
And, go here, for more on problems with the refugee program in the Dakotas. Don’t miss the 2014 Iraqi refugee sex trafficking case, here.