Senator Grassley is on the case, wants answers about refugee contractors involved with the alien “children”!

08/26/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Although his focus seems to be directed at the moment on the ‘Halliburtons’ of federal migrant resettlement contractors, Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs, he must be sure that the Department of Health and Human Services (Office of Refugee Resettlement) gives him information on ALL of the contractors*** receiving grants and contracts for ‘unaccompanied alien children’ (some of those “children” now appear to be fictitious!).

If Senator Grassley gets any answers out of the Obama Administration I will be blown away!

Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson (there are a few real investigative reporters left!) reports on Senator Charles Grassley’s quest, here. Hat tip: Joanne.

The federal government continues to maintain a great deal of secrecy around the influx of what it calls “unaccompanied alien children” or UAC. At the same time, U.S. taxpayers are being asked to fund programs to process and care for them.

Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) recently wrote a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell stating,

“If Congress is going to appropriate funding for the department to provide care and custody for this vulnerable population, it deserves to know how taxpayer dollars are going to be spent.”

Grassley also raised questions about a charity called Southwest Key Programs that “received $368 million in federal government grants over the past six years and more than $122 million alone from the Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement in 2014. According to the non-profit’s 2012 Form 990, it receives 98.76 percent of its support from taxpayer dollars.”

To date, Grassley says his questions to HHS have gone unanswered. Among other queries, he asked for information about who the unaccompanied minors are being released to, the health issues facing the unaccompanied minors, and the decision to move millions of dollars away from service for legal refugees. [Reports are coming out now that the funding to contractors for legal refugees has not been cut, despite the national scare-tactic campaign ginned-up by the contractors*** which we have been reporting on.—ed]

Attkisson then gives us the questions Senator Grassley wants answered by September 5th. I think the good Senator is going to find out just how steeped in secrecy our entire refugee program is!

1. The names of the (HHS) contractors and all identifying information about them, including –their location.

2. What kinds of checks are done on relatives, parents and other guardians? Specifically, what databases are checked and what other agencies help HHS with the checks?

3. What statute, regulation or court order mentions that HHS must release minors into the custody of other non-relative guardians?

4. Why doesn’t HHS report to (Department of Homeland Security) DHS about whom and where the UAMs [UACs—ed] are released to?

5. Are there any examples of sponsor shopping and what you do with that information? My staff followed up on this matter, asking about a recent report about a woman who has taken more than 800 kids into custody for people here illegally.

6. Do you have a summary of the health issues facing the UAM population?

a. Are kids with contagious diseases treated by HHS?
b. Are they released even when contagious?
c. What types of diseases are you seeing?
d. Is the Office of Refugee Resettlement coordinating with the Centers for Disease Control?

7. A copy of the reprogramming request made to appropriators about moving $94 million from legal refugee services to the UAMs.

8. Explain in more detail why HHS is paying up to $1,000 per day for housing unaccompanied minors and families who have entered illegally.

9. How many contracts has BCFS been awarded from 2010 to the present? What is the total cost of these contracts?

10. How many grants has BCFS been awarded from 2010 to the present? What is the total cost of these grants?

11. Please provide all communications and contract documents related to BCFS’ proposed contract and the Palm Aire Hotel and Suites facility, even if the contract is no longer under consideration.

12. Please provide all audits [see my comment below—ed] of grantees receiving HHS funds from the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

13. For fiscal year 2014, what percentage of the funds obligated to grantees by the Office of Refugee Resettlement have been used for administrative expenses? Please provide a detailed breakdown of these expenses.

14. Please provide all OMB A-133 forms for grantees receiving funds from HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

15. Please provide documentation that grantees are complying with OMB A-122 standards.

16. Please provide all grantee reports to HHS on their progress towards meeting stated program goals.

17. Please provide all communications between HHS and Southwest Key related to UAMs in 2014.

18. Please provide all grant and contract documents between HHS and Southwest Key Programs.

Good questions!

*** The Senator must be sure to ask about the other major federal migrant resettlement contractors. (All of the original nine lobbied for the Gang of Eight amnesty bill that passed in the Senate (did they use taxpayer dollars for their lobbying campaigns???)).

We know that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (both receiving over 90% of their funds from the US Treasury) have been contracted for years to care for the UACs. Some of the others listed here are just now getting into the act with hands in the federal cookie jar specifically for the UACs.

By the way, when I first began writing this blog seven years ago I asked if there was financial auditing done on these contractors and was told there are no audits done of where the money goes. I was told only “program audits” were done which were described to be audits of what they accomplished, like how many refugees they “serviced” found employment and so forth. Those original nine contractors, which have an inside track to federal money, have 300 plus subcontractors which makes following the money trail exceedingly difficult.

The federal migrant resettlement contractors which we have followed for years (Grant recipient big dogs (devouring federal cash) Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs are new on the scene in recent years.):

Our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ goes back several years, click here for all of those posts.

Evolution of terms! When we first began reporting on these “children” they were referred to as ‘unaccompanied minors’ and that is why we use the term here (so you can find posts from years gone by). Next, the ORR (Office of Refugee Resettlement) called them ‘Unaccompanied alien minors.’ And then as the PR strategy continued to evolve they became ‘unaccompanied alien children.’ Recently I saw another transformation of the the term—‘unaccompanied immigrant children.’ You see how it works! Next we expect to see ‘unaccompanied refugee children’ as the Open Borders Left/Religious Left continues their public relations drive to change the definition of ‘refugee.’

Take action! Send a note and thank Senator Grassley for wading into this dung pile!

Time magazine reports on federal migrant resettlement contractors

08/12/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is a new day in America! A major media outlet has dared mention the fact that quasi-government/quasi-religious agencies are reaping millions in government grants to care for “refugees” and the illegal alien children surging across our southern border.

[Editor: I realize that I can’t really refer to the contractors*** as refugee resettlement contractors anymore since they now resettle illegal aliens as well! I guess we will call them migrant resettlement contractors.]

And, by the way readers, resettlement (hooking them up with social services and health care, filing their citizenship paperwork etc.) is the job the contractors would have legally been paid to do for all migrants (the newly amnestied) through S.744 (the Gang of Eight amnesty bill) if it had made it to the President’s desk. The contractors listed below all lobbied for S.744!

As regular readers of RRW, you know most of this about grant recipient big dogs—Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key—as well as the smaller federal contractors (by comparison!) the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, but the average America getting news from the dinosaur media does not! Until now!

Here is Time (emphasis mine) in a story from last week entitled: This Baptist Charity Is Being Paid Hundreds of Millions to Shelter Child Migrants.

Iowa Senator Charles Grassley wants to be sure taxpayer money is not being misused. Go for it Senator!

In the late afternoon of July 9, Air Force One touched down at Love Field in Dallas. President Barack Obama ducked into a private room at the airport for a discussion about the crisis of undocumented children crossing the southwest border. Assembled around a wooden table were top Texas officials, including Governor Rick Perry and Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, as well as the leaders of several faith-based charities. One of them was a man so anonymous, the White House pool report misspelled his name.

Kevin Dinnin is the CEO of a faith-based, nonprofit organization called BCFS, formerly known as Baptist Child and Family Services. This obscure charity has emerged as one of the biggest players in the federal government’s response to the influx of more than 57,000 unaccompanied children who have trudged across the southern border so far this year. It runs two of the largest facilities for temporarily housing immigrant children, as well as six permanent shelters in California and Texas. Since December, BCFS has received more than $280 million in federal grants to operate these shelters, according to government records. On July 7, two days before Dinnin met Obama in Dallas, the Department of Health and Human Services awarded BCFS $190,707,505 in a single grant.

Senator Grassley wants answers!

Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, wrote a letter to HHS Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on July 17, requesting information about BCFS contracts to ensure that taxpayer money wasn’t being misused. “Despite being almost completely dependent on the public, BCFS has faced heavy criticism for attempting to avoid public scrutiny,” the Iowa Republican wrote. “This aversion to basic transparency is extremely disturbing.”

[….]

For BCFS executives, the work can be lucrative. According to federal tax records, Dinnin received nearly $450,000 in compensation in 2012. At least four other top officials earned more than $200,000. The median salary for the CEOs of nonprofit organizations like BCFS was about $285,000 in 2011, according to a 2013 survey by Charity Navigator.

Our old standbys, the Lutherans and Catholics get a mention:

The federal grant money for sheltering unaccompanied children, provided by HHS’s Administration for Children and Families, has so far totaled $671 million during the 2014 fiscal year. BCFS has received 40% of those funds, making it the largest recipient of money disbursed to contractors to temporarily house unaccompanied children until they can be reunited with family members or placed in foster care. Dozens of other organizations are involved in the effort, including Southwest Key Programs, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

And then get this! They say that the reason for the secrecy is that they fear—you (“clusters” of armed citizens they say!) protesting. What they really fear is that protests will wake up the American people and more will figure out how they are being scammed out of their tax dollars not to mention that they will come to understand the level to which we are being invaded by the third world!

The level of secrecy surrounding the facilities is unusual, says Neil Gordon, an investigator for the Washington-based Project on Government Oversight. But observers say it may be warranted. From Arizona to Michigan, clusters of citizens have held armed protests to oppose the relocation of undocumented children to facilities in their communities. “This situation is pretty unique in that they don’t want the mobs to come out and cause problems,” Gordon says. “That might be the reason they’re being so tight-lipped.”

Doesn’t that just tick you off! “Observers say” (who the hell are the observers!). Heck, I should start using that phrase! I’ve got all sorts of “observers” with a lot to say!

There is much more, read it all and rejoice that the word is now reaching living rooms nationwide!

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (I suspect grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs are now devouring all the federal cash):

Our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ goes back several years, click here for all of those posts.

Senator Chuck Grassley wants to strip refugee/asylum sections from Gang’s bill!

05/20/2013 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update May 21: His amendment lost of course, the Dems teamed up with Graham and Flake have defeated just about everything Grassley and Sessions tried to do. I’ll have more tomorrow, but for now check out this letter of all those opposing the bill when it comes to the floor. We are among some great patriots!

This is such good news! Really, really, really good news! [Amendment lost but thank Grassley anyway and tell him to take the fight to the floor!]

You must call Senator Grassley this morning to tell him you support this effort! (see below)

Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is offering an amendment to S.744 to remove all references to refugees/asylum from S. 744 until after a report is completed about how the Tsarnaev terrorists were granted asylum! I could kiss the Senate Judiciary Committee ranking Republican!

Erol Kekic of Church World Service does not want more security provisions added to S.744.

I stopped in his office last Wednesday when I went to DC for the State Department hearing and left a letter for him asking him to do just what the Washington Times is reporting (LOL! But, I am sure he figured this out without any help from me!).

From the Washington Times (hat tip: Joanne). Emphasis below is mine:

The Boston Marathon bombing hasn’t derailed the immigration debate, but it has sent lawmakers back to the drawing board on some key provisions, including changes to the asylum system that the two suspects in the bombing used to come to the U.S.

Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were brought to the U.S. a decade ago by their parents, who fled the deteriorating economy and burgeoning conflicts in the Central Asian region the family had called home.

Now, as the Senate Judiciary Committee works its way through the 867-page immigration bill, some lawmakers say it’s a chance to make changes that could help prevent a future incident.

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the ranking Republican on the committee, has introduced an amendment that would prevent any changes to the asylum or refugee systems until at least a year after an audit of what went wrong in Boston.

“The Boston bombing probably made us take a closer look at the asylum provisions in the underlying bill,” Mr. Grassley said. “My asylum amendments don’t address Boston specifically, but they will require a look back by the inspector general before any changes to weaken the current asylum law goes forward.”

The asylum program is for those who apply from within the U.S., while the refugee program is for those applying from outside the border. The U.S. is the most generous country in the world in granting protections, but the programs also have seen periods of fraud and abuse.

Mr. Grassley said the bill written by the “Gang of Eight” senators actually waters down some of the security measures in current asylum and refugee law, and he said he would prefer to see the process stiffened instead.

Let the whining begin!

Refugee contractors are out in full force trying to protect their turf. You see, they are paid by the head (with your tax dollars) to resettle refugees and get asylees hooked up with welfare goodies. They don’t like Senator Graham’s amendments one bit either!

Human rights groups [Federal contractors—ed]…. are gearing up for a fight over another proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, who wants to prevent anyone granted asylum or refugee status from returning to their home countries, unless they got a waiver from the Homeland Security Department.

And, who is one leading whiner—Erol Kekic of contractor Church World Service. Kekic testified at the State Department hearing on Wednesday for CWS and for the lobbying arm for contractors—Refugee Council USA. Mr. Kekic is from Bosnia, here is his bio.

Erol Kekic, director of the Church World Service’s immigration and refugee program, said there are situations where someone wants to return home to see a dying relative or to try to play a role in constructive politics. And then there are the situations where someone was granted asylum years before, but their home country has since stabilized.

“If we’re going to deny protection for people like that I think that’s really taking away from any common sense,” Mr. Kekic said. [Most people would see it’s common sense that if a person returns to the place of his persecution he is either crazy or never persecuted in the first place!—ed]

He said it wasn’t even clear whether Homeland Security officials could track every person they suspected of returning to their home countries.

We better damn well be able to track these people after what we learned in Boston!

NOW! Please call or fax Senator Grassley’s office and tell him to strip out all refugee and asylum references in S.744. No matter what happens with his amendment, thank him for his concern for our security!

Here is his fax and phone number. If you call it will ring for awhile…they are being swamped with calls.

(202) 224-3744
Fax: (202) 224-6020

This is the most important thing you can do today if you want to get this refugee program under control. And, don’t forget to call Senator Rand Paul too. Although he isn’t on the committee he will eventually play a huge role in determining whether this monstrous bill—S.744—passes.

PLEASE ALSO GET THIS AROUND VIA SOCIAL MEDIA—PLEASE TWEET!

Update: The refugee contractors are tweeting like crazy esp. IRC, CWS and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS).