And, Lutherans use your tax dollars to supply cheap labor to Marriott and Hilton!

Truth be told, I don’t have the energy this morning to go through Bhutanese refugee, Som Nath Subedi’s, opinion piece with a fine tooth comb refuting each of his claims about how refugees are a net benefit to the US economy.  But, I also did want to post this and pull out a few things that interested me.

From The Oregonian:

Som Nath Subedi is an exception to the rule when he says this:

When a refugee comes from refugee camps overseas or from a country torn by war or political unrest, he or she takes a travel loan from the U.S. government for airfare. Refugees have to pay that money back. I owed $1,300 for my one-way plane ticket. Within a year, I paid every penny back.

In fact, Som Nath Subedi, who says he was resettled by Lutheran Community Services, paid a portion to the US government but Lutheran Community Services, or its parent agency (as the collection agency), received a cut of the travel loan that really should have all been returned to the US Treasury.

Tellingly, the US State Department does not reveal how many of those travel loans go unpaid leading us to assume it’s a figure they are ashamed of.

Som Nath Subedi goes on to say that he has paid $30,000 in taxes (including property tax) working for Lutheran Community Services.   He is an outlier.  When he says most refugees pay taxes, he is just flat out wrong.  Incomes are so low that most refugees fall below the levels required to pay taxes at all (if they are working) and in fact probably receive money back through such giveaways as the child tax credit programs.

They don’t get off welfare that easily either, the large majority continue in subsidized housing, get medicaid, and receive food stamps at least.

Then he uses figures from more than ten years ago to say that refugees are employed at a higher rate than US citizens.  It is just not so today and it may not have been so then.   The contractors, like his Lutheran bosses, find menial labor for refugees, count them as employed for reporting purposes, and it doesn’t matter if a few months down the road they are unemployed again.

Here is the part that I especially wanted to note—-here is the truth!  

Big corporations lobby Congress to bring in more LEGAL immigrant labor.  The reason refugees fit the bill is that THEY CANNOT GO HOME.  They are essentially captive (slave!) labor.   And, it’s beneficial to the employer to have workers, like the Bhutanese, who are a bit more docile than say the Somalis the meatpackers had trouble with in recent years.

As a matter of fact, I think that after the stink the Somalis caused with demands for religious accommodation in the workplace, I envision a scenario where big corporations went to the Bush Administration and said we need less troublesome workers and the Bush State Department found them the Bhutanese.

Initially, limited English skills lead most refugees to work entry level jobs that average Americans would rather not do. Big corporations like Marriott and Hilton count on refugees coming here to fill a legal workforce. Those same corporations donated to both Democratic and Republican parties*** and their candidates during the 2012 general election to push for the admission of more legal workers. These hard-working refugees stay at work longer than American co-workers. This helps American employers save some money on training and hiring costs.

Som Nath Subedi goes on to make a pitch for ‘comprehensive immigration reform’ so more refugees can get here more easily, but little does he know that once a few million illegal aliens are legalized it will mean less employment for his people.

It makes me want to scream!    In order for Marriott and Hilton to have cheap, legal, uncomplaining workers (Americans would complain if working conditions weren’t acceptable and wages low), we, the taxpayers must subsidize the lives of foreign laborers while the Lutheran contractors act as the middlemen.

If Lutherans (who are being paid by us right now) want to be head-hunters for Marriott/Hilton why don’t they just do it directly and leave the US taxpayer out of it.  Let the Lutherans sponsor families privately and hand the workers over to the big corporations!

I said I wasn’t going to get into this story too deeply, but I just looked at Lutheran Community Services Northwest’s latest Form 990, and I am even more furious!

On page 9, they took in $21,992,854 that year and $19,879,656 came from GOVERNMENT GRANTS.  90 % of their “charitable” income came from you via the US Treasury (why isn’t it paid by Marriott?).

They paid out over $17 million in salaries/benefits and other employee related expenses.

Office expenses were $1 and a quarter million.  Rent was $1 million (I’m rounding numbers now).

They spent $386,000 traveling and $229,000 on conferences.

Their president Ms. Nestaas took in a cool $216,393 in salary and benefits and it’s almost all on you—the taxpayer!

***Who else is working for Marriott?—Grover Norquist—because it’s all about the $$$.