Coronavirus Warning Goes Out to Shelters Housing Unaccompanied Alien Children

So far, President Trump has no plans to close the border.

As regular readers here know, the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement is responsible for thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (mostly teenagers, btw) who cross our borders illegally and without parents.

The shelters in which they are housed are usually operated by contractors including some of the nine refugee contractors mentioned often here at RRW.

I guess you have all been seeing reports that Covid-19 mostly takes its toll on seniors, but that children can be infected and show only mild symptoms and could thus be missed as carriers.

From CNN:

Shelters told to report any coronavirus cases among migrant children

The federal agency tasked with caring for unaccompanied migrant children told staff at shelters Monday that children who may have been exposed to or at risk from coronavirus must be flagged to the health division within four hours, according to an email obtained by CNN.

Children found to be exposed to coronavirus and with symptoms of respiratory disease should also be isolated, the agency told shelters.

Care providers are generally expected to have “an identified space within the shelter facility that may be used for quarantine or isolation” in that a child needs to be separated for a medical reason, according to the agency’s website.

The guidance sent out by the US Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement is indicative of the increased vigilance across the government amid concerns over coronavirus. The dispatch lists symptoms of coronavirus, the agency’s response, and specific guidance to ORR care providers.

[….]

The Office of Refugee Resettlement told CNN in a statement last week that as of February 27, there have not been any suspected or confirmed COVID-19 (the novel coronavirus) disease cases among unaccompanied children in ORR care. There are around 3,600 children in care.

An email went out to staff at those shelters Monday. “This guidance is based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendations and is adapted for the [unaccompanied children] Program,” the email says. “This is a rapidly evolving situation, and updated guidance may be released in the future, as necessary.”

[….]

An attached document says ORR’s Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children is working with the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Protection, among others, to monitor when an unaccompanied child “from a high-risk location as designated by CDC … is initially referred to ORR care.”

Shelter administrators have four hours to notify ORR if they have any suspicious illness, or any ‘child’ who might have been exposed to the virus.

The document also provides a breakdown of identification of risk and response, adding that “any child found to be at possible risk for COVID-19 based on travel history or contact with a known case must be flagged to [Division of Health for Unaccompanied Children] via email within 4 hours.”

More here.

By the way, I have 320 previous posts in my health issues category.

 

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USCRI Who? This Refugee Resettlement Agency is Laying Low, and Doing Well

I’ve been noticing the absence of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), one of the top nine federal contractors***, in all the anti-Trump media hubbub and wondered if they were shrinking financially and therefore laying low to stay out of Trump’s line of sight.

So I checked today, and guess what?

USCRI is approximately 96% federally funded, and…..

They are doing financially better under the Trump Administration than they ever did in the Obama years. 

But, before I give you the data, let me tell you how much controversy they stirred over the years.

Memory lane:

Former USCRI CEO Lavinia Limon with Chobani CEO at the Clinton Global Initiative (all you need to know!).

Longtime readers may remember the huge controversy in Twin Falls, Idaho that I wrote about extensively for months that involved USCRI’s subcontractor there.  It revolved around Chobani Yogurt’s hunger for refugee labor and came to a media explosion over the sexual abuse of a child by refugee boys.

Then there was USCRI’s effort to open a new office in Rutland, VT that ended in failure when citizens rose up, protested, and threw out the ‘welcoming’ mayor.

Earlier I reported on the mess USCRI was embroiled in in Bowling Green, KY when Burmese refugees were placed in substandard housing.

(Here I am going to urge readers to use the search window top right at RRW and enter key words to find out more about Twin Falls, Rutland, Bowling Green, Lavinia Limon, Eskinder Negash etc. and save me some work putting in a zillion links!)

One point on the issue of subcontractors: 

Someone knowledgeable about the big nine recently mentioned that local agencies don’t have the same name sometimes as their parent organization.  Exactly right! Whether they do that on purpose I don’t know, but for those of you wanting to better understand how secretive this program is, that is one important piece of evidence.

Hundreds of subcontractors work for the big nine and those nine move federal funding to their subcontractors usually referred to as affiliates.

They have been wailing and moaning about having to close offices in the Trump era, apparently Trump isn’t hurting USCRI.

Go here to see USCRI’s affiliates:

 

Revolving door!

Also, USCRI is notable as a prime example of the revolving door between government contractors and the agencies from which the organization gets most of its funding.

Both USCRI’s previous CEO Lavinia Limon (headed Clinton’s Office of Refugee Resettlement) and its present CEO Eskinder Negash (headed Obama’s ORR) revolved in and out of government.  Both have done very well themselves in the process as you will see below.

First, here is the stunning financial information at USA Spending.  (I told readers how to use the invaluable site in Knowledge is Power V.)

Remember that we are only 4 months into FY2020 and that is why that number is so low. So check back in September.

 

Looking at the most recently available IRS Form 990, we can say that USCRI is 96% federally funded—that is funded by you, the US taxpayer!

That means they are acting like a government agency but without any of the checks and balances of a federal agency. For example you can’t use the Freedom of Information Act to get information out of a ‘non-profit.’

Check out the 6-figure salaries you pay!  Some are higher than US Senators or Supreme Court Justices!

Ms. Limon is gone, but apparently not at the time this Form990 was filed. By the way the next page lists four additional employees making above six-figures. https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2018/131/878/2018-131878704-1108fd6f-9.pdf

 

See all of my Knowledge is Power series.

*** Here are the nine major federal refugee contractors.  I’ve analyzed five so far including USCRI today and only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has taken a serious budgetary hit under the Trump Administration.  Congress and the Deep staters are making sure these fake non-profits are staying in the black.

So far only the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has seen a significant decline in its federal funding.  In fact the three who recently sued to stop the Trump refugee reform effort—Church World Service, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and HIAS—are doing very well.  Now we know that USCRI is doing exceedingly well.

I will work on the remaining four in the coming days and weeks.

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

 

Who is Representing Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement at Mosque Meeting?

Just when I thought I knew all the ways in which the federal refugee resettlement contractors were milking taxpayers, along comes ‘Switchboard.’

If the millions of dollars we dole out to nine refugee contractors isn’t enough, we, US taxpayers, are funding what is for all intents and purposes a federally funded Leftwing community organizing operation!  

Continue reading!

This story’s headline at WickedLocal (wth?) caught my eye.

Chelmsford mosque hosts forum on immigration, refugee issues Billerica leader speaks

Gee, what kind of forum was a Massachusetts mosque holding I wondered.

Here are a few snips from the beginning of the news account:

A forum held Nov. 14 at the Islamic Society of Greater Lowell mosque explored issues of immigration and refugees — including changes, challenges, and uncertainties.

The forum was sponsored by BRIDGES — the acronym for Building Respect in Diverse Groups to Enhance Sensitivity.

BRIDGES represents a collaborative effort of state, federal and local government agencies.

Participants included religious leaders, law enforcement officials, a representative from U.S. Rep. Laurie Trahan of the 3rd Congressional District.

[….]

BRIDGES formed after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, explained Fatema Esmail, of the Anjuman-e-Ezzi Masjid in Billerica — a mosque that serves the area’s Dawood Bohra, a movement within Shi’a Islam.

Esmail said the organization began with a mission — “to start a better dialogue for understanding, between community leaders and government officials.”

Activities have included cultural sensitivity trainings for personnel at Logan Airport, and with police departments across the state, and across New England.

We will have to have a look at BRIDGES in the future, but here is what I was most interested in…

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement sent a representative?

The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) (this is Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services) is sending spokesmen out to forums like this and suggesting that everything should be fine and dandy (for more refugee arrivals) in New England as governors there would want more refugees.

But, Jason Crislip, “representing the ORR”, doesn’t work for ORR.

He works for David Miliband at the International Rescue Committee that has apparently recently created another avenue, called Switchboard, to siphon off more of your tax dollars!

These Leftist Open Borders groups are masters of deception as they create new groups, which is all fine and dandy as long as we aren’t paying for it!

Sadly, we are paying for Switchboard!

Here is WickedLocal on Crislip:

Jason Crislip, of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, said the Trump administration has proposed reduction of refugee resettlements in the current fiscal year from 30,000 to 18,000. [Crislip is not on the staff of the Office of Refugee Resettlement!—ed]

ORR surrogate Jason Crislip

In addition, Crislip said a presidential executive order, issued Sept. 26, aims to provide state and local consent for the resettlement of refugees.

Not to worry assures Crislip, your New England governors will be on board with MORE refugees.

Governors of New England states have generally indicated support for local consent, said Crislip, who said, “This is a good thing for the refugee program in New England.”

The resettlement program will continue as normally until June 1, which [sic] expected changes take effect, Crislip said. Crislip said the Department of State has begun releasing some information to illuminate the changes.

June 1? What happens then? The Deep staters have their pipelines well established, and those of us whose communities will be changed by what they decide in Washington, DC will be the last to know!

I’m going to be paying close attention to Switchboard which is fully funded by you—the taxpayers through a $ 1.2 million grant from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Dear Stephen Miller, if you read RRW, check out this latest federal boodle going to community organizers working against the President!

From Switchboard’s website:

The IRC received $1,194,063 through competitive funding through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Grant # 90RB0052. The project will be financed with 100% of Federal funds and 0% by non-governmental sources. The contents of this website are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families.

Just think about that!

WE supply the funding and Open Borders agitators do what they want (in our name!).

Here is a recent story from their blog (a blog that you pay for!).

The Leftwing propaganda machine runs on stories, stories to tug on your emotions.  We need to be doing more of that with stories of our own like those I report at ‘Frauds, Crooks and Criminals!’ for free!

Sharing Refugee Stories to Build Community Support

 

Minnesota: Refugee Seniors have a Hard Time Adjusting to US, Your Tax Dollars Ease their Discomfort

When I caught this news at the Minneapolis Star Tribune about a program for lonely senior refugees, not refugees who came decades ago and grew old here, but senior citizens we admit through the US Refugee Admissions Program, it reminded me to tell you how your tax dollars are used.

 

Few speak English. https://www.wnd.com/2016/03/minneapolis-caucus-all-somalian-little-american/

First a bit of the warm and fuzzy story:

Twice a month, elders from the area’s East African community gather here for a shared halal meal and a program that can range from citizenship to weaving to winter preparedness. [I’ll bet the emphasis is on citizenship and registering to vote!—ed]

The goal is to help break the social isolation experienced by members of the older immigrant population, many of whom speak little English and stay home to care for grandchildren while younger adults in the family are at work.

[….]

About 20 people were on hand last week, including Abdi Matan, who helped organize the program through the nonprofit Horn of Africa Aid and Rehabilitation Action Network. Matan came to St. Peter six years ago after working in Somalia for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. He also worked for the U.N. in refugee camps in Somalia and Kenya.

“Minnesota is the next home for Somalis,” he said with a big grin. “We have really enjoyed this program for socialization.”

Somali elders, he said, often have a hard time adjusting to their new home.

[….]

Mohamed Omar Ali, 73, was a herdsman in Somalia. He arrived in St. Peter about five years ago. [Arrived in the US at age 68, sure will be a real asset to the US workforce which is the usual excuse for the program in the first place!—ed]

Agencies paying for this program are all taxpayer-funded including of course Lutheran Social Service of MN!

Mahoney [Leah Mahoney, Minnesota Department of Health] said she believes this is the first program of its kind in rural Minnesota and hopes that other communities with East African populations will take notice. Support for the program has come from the state Health Department, as well as the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, the city of St. Peter and the Minnesota River Area Agency on Aging.

More here.

Here is more that you need to know!

First, senior citizens admitted as refugees are eligible for SSI (Supplemental Security Income) from Social Security.  Read about it here.

However, in addition to individual benefits, states that welcome “elder” refugees receive help directly from the federal treasury (from you again) to help them cope with needy senior citizen refugees.

It would take a lot of time to go through the entire list of over a hundred countries from which we receive refugees to get to the total. But here are a few numbers from the Refugee Processing Center.

In the last five years we admitted 748 seniors (over 65 years old) from Bhutan, Burma 640 seniors, DR Congo 777, and Somalia 273.

Now get a load of this!

States are given federal money to help take care of refugees aged 60 and older.

Do a little math and see how much the elder refugees are costing taxpayers in just this one portion of the welfare services available to them.

From the Office of Refugee Resettlement:

FY 2020 Allocations

The FY 2020 allocations to states and replacement designees are based on the number of ORR-eligible individuals aged 60 or older who arrived and were served in FY 2018, as reported in the ORR Refugee Arrivals Data System (RADS).

The chart below documents the number of eligible individuals served in each state in FY 2018 and the corresponding funding allocations for the SOR program for FY 2020.

Here is just a bit of the chart in a screenshot.  But be sure to open the chart and see the whole list!  It gets worse.  I wondered if this is sweetener for many states? New Hampshire 4 refugees $75,000 from the feds!

 

This is the kind of handout you have been supplying through your tax dollars for years and possibly decades!

Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Reports to Congress are Running More than Two Years Late

But, Congress has never seemed to care (likely because no one there bothers to read anyway!).

This post is a service for serious students of the US Refugee Admissions Program. 

Go here to read the entire document: https://reliefweb.int/sites/reliefweb.int/files/resources/arc_16_508.pdf

The Annual Report to Congress, in which the Office of Refugee Resettlement analyzes the entire program and the refugee population for a given year, is required by law to be submitted to Congress in January of the following fiscal year.

In other words we should expect the FY19 report to be available in January 2020.  But, much to my shock I just now checked the Annual reports and find that the last one that ORR published is the FY16 report!

By the way, this report should not be confused with a report the President will be sending to Congress along with his Presidential Determination for FY2020 which begins tomorrow!

The reports that are now very late are a treasure-trove of information on the program and serious students should at least see the FY16 report (published in June of 2018) to get an idea of, for instance, the percentage of refugees finding jobs and/or using welfare.

It also includes pages and pages of federal grant money—-millions of dollars—going out to ‘non-profit’ groups for myriad reasons.

Some of you might also like to see how much payola your state is getting from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

About ten years ago the ORR was equally remiss in getting these reports done in the time frame outlined by the law, then for a few years they got better at it, but I guess they are again dragging their bureaucratic feet!

A list of all Annual Reports is here.