You pay into refugees' savings accounts! Contractors manage the money

07/08/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This week I had a discussion with another refugee program investigator and the subject of Office of Refugee Resettlement matched saving accounts came up and I decided I better say something about it again so that our many new readers would know about this little pot of your tax dollars that helps refugees buy cars, homes, businesses and higher education.

Over the years I’ve heard of low income Americans complaining about refugees getting cars from the government.
Seems preposterous doesn’t it?
You’ve heard of Obama phones, right? Well, this is about Obama cars (there were Bush cars too!). It isn’t quite that straight forward; refugees aren’t given cars outright as they were with the phones. But, you do in fact help pay for refugees to get cars.
The refugee must save something toward the car and then you kick in some of your cash to match it.
The program is called the IDA program (Individual Development Accounts) and it not only helps the refugee dip into your wallet, but since the grant is administered through non-governmental organizations (grantees and contractors) it helps them too! And, you don’t think they are administering this program without a little overhead skimmed off the top, do you?

Here is how the Office of Refugee Resettlement describes the multi-million dollar IDA grant program:

Individual Development Accounts (IDA) are matched savings accounts designed to help refugees save for a specific purchase. Under the IDA program, the matching funds, together with the refugee’s own savings from their employment, are available for purchasing one (or more) of four savings goals:

1. Home purchase
2. Small business development
3. Post secondary education or training
4. Automobile (for employment purposes)

Public or private non-profit organizations administer IDA programming. Refugees receive basic financial training to help them understand the American financial system, budgeting, saving and credit. In addition, refugees receive training focused on the specific savings goals. The specialized training ensures that refugees understand how to manage their assets.

Successful IDA programs [this is not a joke!—ed]

*Improve the ability of low-income refugees to save
*Promote participation in banking
*Assist in education and career training
*Increase home ownership
*Provide access to funding

IDA grantees provide matched savings accounts to refugees whose annual income is less than 200 percent of the poverty level and whose assets, exclusive of a personal residence and one vehicle, are less than $10,000. Grantees provide matches of up to $1 for every $1 deposited by a refugee in a savings account. The total match amount provided may not exceed $2,000 for individuals or $4,000 for households. Upon enrolling in an IDA program, a refugee signs a savings plan agreement which specifies the savings goal, the match rate, and the amount the refugee will save each month.

So, as a refugee, you could own a house and a car and if you have less than $10,000 in the bank, you are eligible to have a federally matched savings account!

Here is a link to the most recent grantees in the matched savings account program.

Idaho getting cash!

I see one of the recipients is the Boise, Idaho Mountain States Group which recently got $200,000 big ones to run this giveaway.

Mountain States Group, Inc.

Boise

9/29/2016

$200,000

Jan Reeves
1607 West Jefferson Street, Boise, ID 8370-5111
208.336-4222

And, by the way, if you are doing your research out there in Idaho, you will notice that Mountain States Group is now Jannus, Inc (not not named for Jan Reeves, an Obama Champion of Change, but for the Roman god—huh?). These contractors are always changing their names. Is it to confuse anyone trying to follow the money? Just wondering.
Here is a recent Form 990 for Jannus, Inc. thanks to one of the many budding investigators out there! (About 90% funded by government grants!)
One more thing on Idaho. It is a Wilson-Fish state; so the refugee program there cuts elected officials out of the process and leaves it up to the US State Department and Jannus, Inc. to call the shots on refugees going to Idaho. You, the citizens, have NO voice.
Endnote: I’m in DC today making a presentation, so probably won’t have any time to post anything else or answer all of your e-mails. Sorry!

'Welcoming America' comes to Long Island, is it in your town yet? Find out!

06/08/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It’s been almost exactly two years since I first heard that the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Dept. of Health and Human Services had hired a community organizing contractor (with your money!) to tamp down any “pockets of resistance” to the seeding of immigrants (legal and illegal) in your towns and cities.
Read my original post here.

The ORR spokesman at the meeting in Lancaster, PA actually used the phrase “pockets of resistance” to describe any of you questioning what Washington was doing to your community.

Wanted! Bloggers to track and report on what David Lubell is doing! He is the founder and head honcho at Welcoming America. Obama honored him in Nashville last year. His community organizing group was started with seed money from George Soros and he is working to change your communities across America forever. http://www.tennessean.com/story/money/2014/12/09/obama-honors-immigrant-rights-leader-david-lubell/20156983/

Since then of course we have learned that the whole seeding idea is part of Obama’s New Americans initiative.
I’m bringing you this post at a website called the Independent Sentinel for a very specific reason (in addition to educating you about how ‘Welcoming America’ is working to control anyone in Nassau and Suffolk counties that might object to being replaced by 526,000 immigrants with more on the way).
First, please read the post by Sara Noble, here.

And this is why I am posting it: Sara Noble is doing something!

She is investigating, writing reports and publishing them on national issues and on her local community.
Everywhere I go, people ask, what can I do? What can I do? This is what you can do—become an investigative blogger! Or, a regular letter-to-the-editor writer, a facebook page editor (not just yak about personal stuff), tweet on a specific subject.

We must do the work old fashioned investigative reporters used to do. And, we have to get our research out beyond our own circle of like-minded people.

Here is what Sara says:

Independent blogs like this one provide an opportunity for common folk to battle the corrupted mainstream media in a search for truth. We are searching, always searching…

I don’t know how many times I have to say it, but it does you no good to be a great reader of the news, or even a researcher and then send me e-mails (filled with links) that fill up my in-boxes! Remember it is just me here!
The other day I suggested someone start an investigative blog on food stamp fraud at immigrant-run convenience stores—someone please tell me you will soon launch that!
We can help save America, but we have to get our facts and get them out far and wide because the mainstream media (even Fox News) is controlled by the establishment.

Welcoming America Watch!

Now that would be a great title of a blog or website! One of you looking for something to do from home could easily do this….
Track Welcoming America around America!
Report what they are up to!
See our archive on Welcoming America by clicking here.

Breitbart reports on high welfare use by refugees from latest annual report; let Rep. Trey Gowdy know!

04/03/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I am so excited!

A major news outlet is actually reporting on those often very tardy (and seemingly boring) annual reports to Congress from the Office of Refugee Resettlement!

Probably for the last few years only a handful of people in the whole country were looking at a report that I doubt anyone in Congress ever looks at. As a matter of fact, I bet most Members of Congress and US Senators don’t even know the Refugee Program exists!

Ken Tota is the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. He puts out the reports. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/about/leadership/ken-tota

But, a new day has arrived!

Here is Breitbart’s headline:

3 in 4 Refugees On Food Stamps, Many Using Other Forms Of Public Assistance

“A strikingly high percentage of refugees to the United States use some form of public assistance, according to a government report to Congress.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Annual Report to Congress for FY2013 reveals that nearly 3 in 4 refugees were on food stamps.

Additionally, nearly half were on some form of cash assistance and more than a half were on medical assistance. More than 20 percent were on Supplemental Security Income, more than 22 percent were in public housing and nearly 20 percent were on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).

The report noted that many households received more than one type of assistance and the data dealt with refugees who arrived in the U.S. between March 1, 2008 to February 28, 2013.

To be sure, assistance use varied among region of origin.

Refugees from Africa and the Middle East were the heaviest users of cash assistance at 61.9 percent and 68.3 percent respectively. Latin American refugees only used cash assistance at a rate of 8.1 percent and South Asia used about 42.7 percent. Data for Europe and the former Soviet Union was not available.

The use of food stamps — or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) — also varied with 88.9 percent of refugees from Africa, 91.4 percent of Middle Eastern refugees, the Middle East, 72.9 percent of South Asia, and 36.7 percent of Latin American refugees using the benefit.

Overall, according to the report just 50 percent of refugee households in the five year window were self-sufficient. [This self-sufficiency claim is shaky as refugees can be on some forms of welfare and still be considered ‘self-sufficient’ for the purposes of this report.—ed]

So, if you are angry, what do you do? Who is the one person that could bring about a serious review of this program?

Call Rep. Trey Gowdy and tell him to do his job and review the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program. Call! 202-225-6030

First have a look at the report sent to Rep. Trey Gowdy’s House Subcommittee on Immigration and Border Security.

Here it is—the annual report for FY2013. The Office of Refugee Resettlement is required by law to prepare these reports to Congress within just a few months of the close of the fiscal year. So this report is only a little over a year late.

In the past, as we often reported, they were many years late and Congress never noticed! Here is a post from 2013 where I chronicled the flagrant violation of the law over many years.

When the bill that became the Refugee Act of 1980 (Kennedy, Biden, Carter) was debated in Congress, critics said it would become a pipeline for poverty as more and more welfare recipients entered the US as refugees and asylees. Guess what! They were right!

In keeping with a recent trend here at RRW where we are attempting to identify the major actors in colonizing your towns with impoverished third worlders…..

Let Rep. Trey Gowdy know you want this law reformed or repealed!

Of course there is a Senate Subcommittee responsible for refugees as well, headed by Senator Jeff Sessions, but let’s get this ball rolling in the House. Gowdy probably thinks the refugee resettlement program is some benign political freebie for him, let him know it isn’t!

Here is his office contact information. Note that he has an office in Spartanburg the latest town to be seeded!

Office of Refugee Resettlement planning ‘RefugeeCorps’ to employ refugees at contractor offices

01/26/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The new RefugeeCorps will be patterned after AmeriCorps and and in partnership with AmeriCorps’ parent government agency.

It makes me laugh, they are very clever—very good at working all the angles!

Eskinder Negash is the outgoing Director of ORR. I wonder if they have picked his replacement yet, does anyone know?

The former refugees will be working for the refugee agencies (the federal contractors!) that operate in 180 plus cities across America. So, rather than the resettlement agencies using some of their government money to employ people they will be getting access to another pot of government money to hire refugees who can’t find work otherwise.

So tell me why we don’t just open federal refugee offices in those 180 cities and quit this charade where non-profits pretend to be non-governmental (charitable!) agencies.

They still spend our tax dollars, but as non-profits they are unaccountable to those of us paying their freight!

This is more news from the ORR outgoing Director Eskinder Negash’s annual review. We posted previous information from that document—58,000 unaccompanied minors entered the US in 2014 and were distributed to 124 locations around the country.

Here is the information on the RefugeeCorps (emphasis is mine):

ORR is pleased to announce the establishment of a new partnership with the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS)—the agency that supports the AmeriCorps program, the RefugeeCorps. An entirely new initiative, this program places former refugees in positions at resettlement agencies to work directly with new arrivals. The goal is to improve the self-sufficiency and well-being of refugee populations and promote successful local integration.

Programs will focus on three key areas:

Economic Opportunity: improved economic well-being and security; improved access to financial literacy-focused services; safe, affordable housing; and, improved employability;

Education: improved educational outcomes for economically disadvantaged children; improved school readiness and educational outcomes for children; and, post-secondary education, and

Healthy Futures: improved access to primary and preventative health care; increased physical activity; and, improved nutrition in youth and reduction in childhood obesity.

This new RefugeeCorps will begin in late Summer/Fall 2015 with nine agencies, with a plan to expand the program to every refugee resettlement site in the U.S. over the next few years. Participating RefugeeCorps members receive the same benefits as a traditional AmeriCorps member, including a stipend, post-service educational benefit, health insurance and other benefits. ORR will provide the funding for this program to national voluntary agencies through the Preferred Communities grant.

Yippee! Money! Money! Money!

Office of Refugee Resettlement’s ‘Year in Review’ is very informative; UACs numbered 58,000 in 2014.

01/19/2015 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

UAC= Unaccompanied Alien Children

ORR Director Eskinder Negash has penned his last ‘Year in Review’ at the federal agency’s website.

Negash, a former refugee, came to the federal job from his previous employment as a federal ‘non-profit’ contractor. I’m guessing he will be replaced with yet another contractor moving from grant recipient to becoming the giver of federal grants and contracts. Photo: http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2014/07/top-obama-official-defends-open-borders-tells-conference-jesus-was-a-refugee/

According to Ryan Lovelace writing at National Review Online, Negash resigned his job on the eve of a Congressional hearing on the placement of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the wake of the border surge this past summer.

Here is how Negash’s letter introducing the ‘Year in Review’ begins. [This will be the first of several posts on the review that I plan to write, starting with this one about the “children.”–ed]

Dear colleagues and friends,

In FY2014, the United States welcomed refugees from 67 countries across the globe, and for the second year in a row, the highest admissions were from refugees from Iraq and Burma, accounting for more than 56,000 (81%) of all arrivals. Iraqi refugees continued to suffer from secondary displacement—and in some cases, tertiary displacement—as the civil war in Syria rages on.

For the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), two thousand fourteen was a historic year, with a mass influx of unaccompanied children from Central America that totaled close to 58,000 children by year’s end—more than twice the number received in FY2013, and nearly the sum of the previous five years combined.

This influx of children expanded the overall population served by ORR and its partners to approximately 185,000 new arrivals in Fiscal Year 2014, comprised of refugees and asylees, Special Immigrant Visa holders, Cuban/Haitian Entrants and Parolees, victims of Human Trafficking, and Unaccompanied Children (UC). [See Negash’s previous ‘Year in Review’ and note that we are up 40,000 or so “served” by ORR—ed]

From the more detailed report for 2014 (emphasis is mine):

Unaccompanied Children

In FY2014, the unanticipated rate and referral numbers of Unaccompanied Children (UC) surpassed program planning, physical capacity and staffing, and stretched funding authorization at an historic rate for the United States. In total, ORR placed 57,496 children in 124 facilities across 15 states. In May and June alone, ORR received 19,628 children for placement, representing 34% of the annual total for FY2014.

During the height of the summer influx, ORR coordinated with the Department of Defense (DoD) to utilize three DoD installations (Fort Sill in OK, Port Hueneme Naval Base in Ventura, CA, and Joint Base San Antonio (Lackland) in San Antonio, TX). ORR and its partners worked tirelessly throughout the summer influx, addressing emergent medical issues and implementing protocols to prevent backlogs in placements, to ensure that the children received appropriate medical screening and care. Faced with unprecedented numbers of children arriving at DHS border patrol stations faster than space could be found in the network to accommodate them, the team worked tirelessly and creatively around the clock to clear the backlogs at over-crowded border patrol stations, and move the children quickly and safely into appropriate shelter beds. ORR is grateful for the assistance of HHS, DHS, and the White House, and most importantly, to the Department of Defense which was instrumental in helping ORR attend to the critical protection needs of the children, by providing temporary shelter on the three bases.

In simple numbers,

~two-thirds of children referred to ORR in FY2014 were male

~21% were 12 years of age or younger [79% are teens—ed]

~96% of all referrals came from three countries: Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala

~Overall bed capacity increased by more than 70%

Looking ahead to FY2015, it is difficult to project how many children may arrive, but ORR staff and partners are working diligently to create surge capacity and medical plans; continue streamlining program policies and procedures; reform post-release and home study services; ensure adequate staffing and oversight, and remain flexible to accommodate seasonal patterns of referrals that are subject to change at any time.

Look for future posts on the ‘Review.’

Go here for all of our posts going back several years on ‘unaccompanied minors.’ By the way, first they were ‘unaccompanied minors,’ then ‘unaccompanied alien minors,’ then they became ‘unaccompanied alien children,’ and finally now ‘unaccompanied children’ as the political correctness police dropped the word “alien.” They are decidedly NOT refugees which is what Obama and the contractors are working really hard to make you believe.