Biden Sets a Record for Lowest Number of Refugees Admitted in One Year, Contractors Cry

As the 2021 fiscal year wrapped up, resettlement contractors*** are directing their anger at Joe Biden, as that meany Trump can no longer be blamed for his “nativist” and “racist” slowdown of refugee admissions under the Refugee Act of 1980.

But, LOL! They aren’t going so far as to call their team—Biden or Harris— names and disparage their characters for the lowest number of refugee admissions on record.

Editor:  Readers remember that the border invaders and most of the unvetted Afghan deluge are not considered legitimate refugees (yet).

They are “hanging by a thread!” says Lutheran CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah who is barely making it on a quarter of a million annual salary supplied by US taxpayers!

Here is what The Hill is saying, and I have to laugh because once again we have Lutheran CEO Vignarajah crying about how little funding is flowing to the contractors for their ‘charitable’ good works.

“Increasing the figure earlier on would have meant an infusion of resources [aka money, your money–ed] that were especially needed by local resettlement agencies that were hanging on by a thread.”

I’m not picking on Vignarajah, some contractor do-gooder CEOs make gobs more than she does, it is just that she can’t seem to stay out of the limelight.

Glenn Beck Praises Lutheran Refugee ‘Non-Profit’ for Their Supposed Christian Charity Toward Afghan Evacuees

The Hill:

Biden on track to beat Trump’s record for fewest resettled refugees

I was interested to see that although Joe told Congress that the ceiling for the 2022 fiscal year will be 125,000 refugees from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East—a flow that was supposed to begin 4 days ago—he has yet to sign the order.

After a litany of complaints about Biden’s back and forth on the ceiling in his first months in office, The Hill reporter comments:

The reversal was whiplash for the resettlement agencies that contract with the government and who had set about rehiring staff in order to rebuild a system that atrophied under the Trump administration.

Uh-oh! Biden is making the contractors jittery with this:

Biden notified Congress of his recommendation to set the refugee cap at 125,000 for the coming fiscal year, though he has yet to sign the presidential determination that makes it official. 

But the report seems to express some internal doubt about the government’s ability to meet that goal, writing to Congress that the State Department would issue funding for 65,000 refugees.

“Those funding levels will be re-evaluated and increased as appropriate as the year progresses and as it becomes clearer how much progress can be made against the target,” the White House wrote.

Read the whole article, there are some interesting bits of information for serious students of the refugee resettlement industry.

Lutherans Hanging by a Thread?  Hardly!

So, once again I made a trip to USA Spending!  See what I found!  Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is presently at about 87% federally funded (you can calculate that by examining a recent IRS Form 990).

Check out their taxpayer-funded boodle here (Screenshot below)

It is very clear that Trump’s presence in the White House didn’t deplete their funds and in fact they did better under some Trump years than under Obama!

It is my fervent hope that one day a real reporter will call them out for their poor-mouthing lies….

From USA Spending:

 

*** These are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors. Not only do they place refugees in cities large and small but are in the driver’s seat when determining which cities will get which refugees.

Editor:  Apologies from me for not being able to keep up with everyone’s requests for information.  I am overloaded on all fronts as I try to maintain some balance in my life. 

Searching for something? I urge you to use the search window here at RRW, there are literally nearly 10,000 posts archived here.

Some of you have noticed that I have deactivated my Facebook page—yes, I have.

My e-mail boxes are full and overflowing! The very best way to reach me is to send a comment to this post if there is something you want me to see.  I do review and moderate comments every day or so, and if you have sent me  some information that is off topic, I won’t post it, but will see it.

Oh Joy! Just What America Needs—More Homeless People! Afghans this Time?

“We also know without significant resources, there’s the real prospect of homelessness for some of these families.”

(Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah)

 

So what did they expect with Biden’s careless and illegal airlift of tens of thousands of needy Afghans!

Homeless in Sacramento, a top Afghan resettlement site! Will they soon be joined by Afghans?

 

How did they not see this coming?  From CNN no less:

Refugee groups race to find housing for 53,000 Afghan evacuees

(CNN)Refugee resettlement agencies*** are racing to find housing for the approximately 53,000 Afghans on military bases in the United States who will eventually be resettled in the country, but the groups are facing a strained — and expensive — housing market.

Every year, refugee agencies find houses or apartments for refugees to live once they’re admitted to the United States. It’s a cumbersome process that often happens months before a refugee arrives. But the frenzied evacuation of Afghans from Afghanistan has turned the process on its head, with agencies trying to find housing for refugees who are already in the US with limited funds.

Cry me a river!

“We’re expected as a resettlement agency to do the work over the next three to four months that we did over four years,” said Jenny Yang, senior vice president of advocacy and policy at World Relief.

The difficulty is compounded by the fact that refugee agencies were already under strain after years of low admissions under the Trump administration, requiring them to close offices and lay off staff. That meant they also lost some existing relationships with landlords.

The federal government provides a one-time payment of $2,275 for each Afghan an agency serves, of which $1,225 is available for agencies to use for direct assistance like housing and basic necessities, including furniture and silverware. The other bulk of the money is used to cover administrative costs.  (Ha! Ha! That means money for the contractors—for salaries, office space, travel and so forth!—ed)

While outside help and donations might add to those funds, rent remains expensive. The national median rent rose to $1,302 in September, up 15% from a year ago, according to a report from Apartment List, a rental listing site.

It really doesn’t help their case that the CEO of the Lutheran contractor, Vignarajah pulls down a quarter of a million dollar a year salary!  Maybe she could take a pay cut in order to help more Afghans, or better still invite a few to live in her home. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2021/09/08/glenn-beck-praises-lutheran-refugee-non-profit-for-their-supposed-christian-charity-toward-afghan-evacuees/

“The housing crisis is essentially what Americans are experiencing but imagine approaching it when you don’t have a nest egg, you don’t have a safe income yet, you have no landlord references or history,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, a refugee resettlement agency.

So far, few Afghan evacuees have left the eight military installations that are being used to house Afghans while they finish processing, ranging from a couple dozen to a hundred a day, according to an administration official.

“It’s obviously going to need to be thousands of people moving off a week,” a senior administration official told CNN.

“We’re also cognizant of the fact that if we move people off too quickly before we have adequate housing and the other wrap-around services that people need set up that they could end up in a situation where they don’t succeed from the start in their new homes, so we’re trying to get the balance right.”

LOL!  I love how the Left always figures out a new way to say something for media consumption.

“Wrap-around services”=WELFARE!  Taxpayer funded welfare!

There is a lot more information in the CNN report, click here.

BTW, they will likely get their federal payola for housing the Afghans, but it will be to the detriment of low income Americans, minorities, the disabled, and young people getting started who will suffer from increased housing costs.

*** Here are the nine federally funded refugee resettlement agencies which have been begging for more clients (refugees) to fill their coffers.

By the way, I don’t know how it is even legal for them to be tasked and paid to resettle parolees—parolees are not legitimate refugees.

EditorApologies from me for not being able to keep up with everyone’s requests for information.  I am overloaded on all fronts as I try to maintain some balance in my life. 

Searching for something? I urge you to use the search window here at RRW, there are literally nearly 10,000 posts archived here.

Some of you have noticed that I have deactivated my Facebook page—yes, I have.

My e-mail boxes are full and overflowing! The very best way to reach me is to send a comment to this post if there is something you want me to see.  I do review and moderate comments every day or so, and if you have sent me  some information that is off topic, I won’t post it, but will see it.

‘Religious Charities’ Praise Biden’s 125,000 Refugee Admission Plan

This new batch of poor people from all over the world could begin arriving a week from tomorrow!

See my post on Tuesday where I pointed out that the new wave is over and above the millions of impoverished people arriving through various means since Biden took office.

Indeed, the now-arriving Afghan evacuees are not included in the 125,000—they are over and above that number!

Biden Sets FY22 Refugee Ceiling at 125,000

However, some say it isn’t enough.  They wanted 200,000 for Fiscal Year 2022!

By the way,  they really aren’t “faith-based” religious charities as Episcopal News trumpets, but handsomely funded federal contractors hiding under a veneer of Jewish and Christian humanitarian zeal.***

From Episcopal News Service:

Faith-based agencies celebrate ‘return to moral leadership’ as Biden raises refugee ceiling to 125,000

[Religion News Service] Faith-based refugee resettlement groups are celebrating the Biden administration’s proposal to admit as many as 125,000 refugees to the United States in the coming year, calling the decision a “return to moral leadership.”

The news came Sept. 20 as the Biden administration submitted its report to Congress setting the refugee ceiling for the new fiscal year, which begins in October.

The proposal fulfills a campaign pledge from President Joe Biden and reverses years of cuts to the U.S. refugee resettlement program by former President Donald Trump.

LOL!  Church World Service celebrating a return to moral leadership!

I get to use one of my all-time favorite photos of Church World Service Leftist political activists!

“Today we celebrate a return to moral leadership and our nation’s commitment to welcome and generosity,” Church World Service Senior Vice President Erol Kekic said Monday in a written statement.

We need money, money, money to do our religious work!

Still, amid a pandemic and the work of rebuilding the U.S. refugee resettlement system after four years of devastating cuts, the U.S. had admitted only 7,637 refugees in 2021 through the end of August.

Faith-based refugee resettlement groups — which make up the backbone of the U.S. refugee resettlement system — agreed Monday there is more work to be done.

Even as they praised the higher refugee ceiling, the groups also asked Congress to commit to rebuilding and fully funding the U.S. refugee resettlement program so it could reach that number.

Vignarajah formerly worked for Obama.

“Raising this cap without dedicating significant resources, personnel, and measures to streamline the process would be largely symbolic,” said Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah.

Six of the nine refugee agencies the U.S. government contracts to resettle refugees in the country are faith-based: Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, HIAS (founded as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society), Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, World Relief and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

They wanted 200,000 more poor people for American taxpayers to support!

Church World Service and HIAS both noted they had called on the Biden administration to raise the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. this coming year even higher — to 200,000.

Keep reading….

This will all make America stronger says Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service President and CEO Krish O’Mara Vignarajah (as she pulls down a quarter of a million dollar salary, more than Senators and Members of Congress or Supreme Court Justices, at an organization that is almost completely funded by US taxpayers)!

 

Glenn Beck Praises Lutheran Refugee ‘Non-Profit’ for Their Supposed Christian Charity Toward Afghan Evacuees

 

*** For new readers here are the nine federal resettlement contractors, six of which are (ha! ha!) “faith-based” ‘religious charities’!

For long time readers (who get sick of me writing about the contractors) know that the only way to reach past and around the mainstream media is to repeat, and repeat, and repeat some more, and maybe that is the best contribution I can make!

I have the patience to report on them day after day, and year after year!

Hope springs eternal that some day corporate media will tell the truth that these are not charities, but are indeed extended arms of the federal government which have been doing their ‘good works’ for 40 years.

 

 

Massachusetts Jewish ‘Refugee’ Contractor: We can’t do all this work without money!

Of course I have been making the point for 14 years—these so-called religious charities that resettle refugees in the US (the Afghans are not legitimate refugees!) would quickly go belly-up if they had to find private money for their religious charitable work.

They can’t raise enough money to place thousands of refugees without the federal dole, so what does that tell you?  It tells me that there isn’t popular support from average Americans for what they are doing!

I’m not picking on Massachusetts or this Jewish resettlement agency, it just happens that this story, of MANY stories that are coming to my attention, came to me as I sat down to write a post for today.

This complaint is everywhere—-too many evacuees, little payment for services for the contractors, no affordable housing and these Afghans, most of them, won’t be eligible for welfare including food stamps unless Congress changes the law.

Somehow the chosen towns and its citizens are going to have to cough up the financial support.

And, you can be sure they won’t be put up in Hyannis! 

That would only be fair since it was ol’ Teddy himself who created the refugee admissions program and the Special Immigrant Visa program for Iraqis and Afghans.

You can be sure that no Afghans will be housed at Massachusetts’s Hyannis Harbor Hotel!

 

Before I give you the story, know that the contractors*** are knocking on doors that were previously slammed in their faces—like this one in Rutland, Vermont.

From Masslive:

Nearly 1,000 Afghan refugees are set to arrive in Massachusetts – are we ready?

Roughly 1,000 Afghan evacuees are going to be rehoused in Massachusetts communities, Maxine Stein, president and CEO of the Jewish Family Service of Western Massachusetts (JFSWM), told MassLive on Thursday, although the specific date is yet to be confirmed.

The problem for non-profits like JFSWM is funding and permanent housing.

[….]

Republican Governor Baker: Welcome Afghans whoever you are!

Gov. Charlie Baker issued a public statement on Aug. 17, at the height of the crisis in Afghanistan that Massachusetts is ready to assist Afghan refugees seeking safety and peace in America, but little has been revealed on the state’s plan for the intake.

 

Where is the MONEY?

So far no money has been promised to aid the work the charities are doing to rehouse the refugees and Baker’s office has not laid out any guarantee of support.

“I think we’re getting to a point now where we’re being asked to do all of this work, and that’s wonderful, but we are given no resources to do it,” said Stein. “The state of Massachusetts is welcoming Afghan refugees, but we need to see some financial support.”

JFSWM is looking at three communities to house the 150 Afghan evacuees they can help: Framingham, Pittsfield and Springfield.

If you live in one of those Massachusetts towns and you aren’t happy with what you are hearing, you better speak up now or forever hold your peace!

Check out my archives to see that Springfield, Mass, a working class town, has been a real pocket of resistance over the years.  Nevertheless, the State Department continued to shove refugees down the mayor’s throat.

***The primary contractors have around 100 subcontractors working for them….

The Springfield Jewish agency is a subcontractor of HIAS.

Too Many Afghans and Not Enough Welfare For Them (and everyone else!)

Afghan evacuees arrive at Dulles near Washington, DC.

 

CBS posted a handy outline of the massive mess the Biden Administration has created by scooping up tens of thousands of Afghans who have really no legitimately determined immigration status in the US.

So, of course, Congress might have to change immigration law so that medical care, housing assistance, food stamps and cash assistance can be made available to them.

In the meantime, the Biden Administration will be going outside the law to find money (your money) to care for them.

This article is a must read for all of you interested in the tangled mess and it serves as a harbinger of the troubles your community is going to have with large numbers of unhappy evacuees who are going to be wanting stuff—decent housing in crime-free communities and a social safety net for months or even years to come.

By the way, in my first year of writing this blog—2007—there was an Iraqi boy, in Arizona I think, who penned a letter to a local paper and asked why the US would admit so many Iraqis that were then having a miserable life in America because there were too many to be properly cared for.  He asked, why not admit fewer so they could be happy instead of too many who were all subsequently unhappy?

I predict we are rapidly headed to a crisis we have never seen before because don’t forget we are also admitting hundreds of thousands across our southern border who have no approved reason to be here and who are expecting Americans to feed and clothe them.

All of those aliens combined with the Afghans and Biden’s promise for October 1 to begin admitting up to 125,000 refugees from other areas of the world is going to create the greatest drain on the American taxpayers we have likely ever seen, and the greatest chaos and tension in ‘welcoming’ communities as all of the competing migrants want stuff.

Here is the CBS story.  If you are really interested in what is happening, you should read it yourself.  I’m pulling out only a few nuggets of information I found most informative.

Once again, they are not legitimate REFUGEES, so try hard to simply call them evacuees, even as the mainstream media will try to firmly cement in your minds that they are legal refugees.

U.S. effort to resettle Afghan refugees faces major hurdles

The Biden administration’s plan to resettle tens of thousands of Afghan refugees is facing formidable operational and legal challenges, with issues ranging from the uncertain immigration status of many evacuees, to limited social resources and permanent housing for the new arrivals.

Thousands of at-risk Afghans are arriving in the U.S. without approved visas, placing them in legal limbo and rendering them ineligible for some federal social programs available to those admitted as refugees, including cash assistance and Medicaid.

The sharp increase in admissions of Afghan evacuees over the past few days has also strained the resources of the nine national U.S. refugee resettlement agencies***, prompting them to house some refugees in hotels and Airbnb rentals while affordable apartments are found, three resettlement officials told CBS News.

Since mid-August, the U.S. has admitted approximately 24,000 of the Afghans it evacuated from Kabul this summer ahead of the U.S. withdrawal. As of Thursday morning, more than 20,000 of them were being housed at eight military sites that have been chosen to temporarily host them, according to internal federal data reviewed by CBS News.

Another roughly 39,000 evacuees remained at military bases in Europe and the Middle East, including Afghans undergoing U.S. immigration processing and security vetting, the federal data showed.

Biden’s team is going “ad hoc” (a nice way of saying that they are going outside of existing law) to get the non-refugees their bennies.  

To address these exclusions, the State Department is launching an “Afghan Parolee Support Program,” which will help Afghan parolees with housing, transportation, food, cash, clothing, legal counsel and other services, according to multiple resettlement officials involved in the effort.

And, those religious charities (six of nine are supposedly religious)*** that resettle refugees on a per head basis will be getting paid as usual even as the evacuees are NOT refugees! Sounds illegal to me!

Resettlement agencies are expected to receive $2,275 for each Afghan parolee that they serve. However, parolees will only have access to the makeshift program for up to 90 days, so refugee advocates are now urging lawmakers to enact a legislative fix.

Congressmen Seth Moulton and Don Bacon, a bipartisan pair of former military officers, are planning to introduce a bill known as the WELCOME Act on Friday that would make Afghan parolees eligible for the same government benefits that traditional refugees receive, two congressional officials told CBS News.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services is also considering creating an ad hoc program to temporarily cover medical services for parolees, two resettlement officials said.

There is so much information.  You should read it and book mark it for future reference.

Don’t miss the part about how they will not be sent back to Afghanistan even if they don’t get a favorable decision with their asylum claim or their security screening!

More than 23,000 are already on US soil!  See here.

*** These are the nine Leftwing federal resettlement contractors that are busy beavers right now as they juggle for position to be awarded their allotments of illegitimate ‘refugees’ (refugee industry watchers refer to the process as bidding for bodies).