Tag: Unaccompanied minors

‘Welcoming America’ announces dirty dozen mayors who invite illegal alien children to their cities

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is a concerted PR campaign going on to get your minds right on the issue of flooding America with illegal and LEGAL migrants so that you will shut up about the rapidly changing demographic make-up of America.

Federal contractor and head honcho of ‘Welcoming America’ David Lubell (right) with the mayor of Atlanta (center). http://www.welcomingamerica.org/2014/09/19/a-historic-day-for-atlanta/

One of the leaders of the PR campaign is ‘Welcoming America.’  We first learned about the Office of Refugee Resettlement CONTRACTOR here in June of 2013 when we attended a refugee pow-wow in overloaded Lancaster, PA.

It was announced that this new hire was in response to “pockets of resistance” to more refugee resettlement popping up around the country. (They are running out of cities willing to be overloaded!)

Let me repeat, Welcoming America is being paid by US taxpayers (and George Soros! among others) to gin up a PR campaign to try to keep you quiet about the demographic change (and more Democrat voters!) they are bringing to your towns and cities.

Here are all of our posts on ‘Welcoming America.’ But, please especially read this one.

Now to the dirty dozen (of course they are not dirty to Welcoming America, that is what I am calling them!).

Surely this letter is timed to coincide with Obama’s decision to create a new refugee class from Central America.    After all, ‘Welcoming America’ is a federal contractor so it’s pretty easy to coordinate PR with your federal bosses.

From Latin Post (hat tip: Joanne):

A dozen U.S. mayors have agreed to support immigrant children from Central American seeking refuge.

Welcoming America, a nonprofit organization that promotes cooperation between foreign-born and U.S.-born Americans, released a letter signed by 12 mayors and a county executive promising to “compassionately support and welcome the young children from Central America seeking refuge in the U.S.”

“As we reflect back on the initial concerns raised around children fleeing violence, we see that our values have prevailed,” said Welcoming America Executive Director David Lubell. “These leaders are demonstrating that communities have responded with compassion, and can successfully help children in need, now and into the future.”

Blah, Blah, Blah…..

Go here for the whole letter.  Below is the dirty dozen plus Isiah Leggett County Executive of my old home county—Montgomery County, MD.

(LOL!  I betcha we could come up with our own 12 (maybe more!) Mayors who oppose more immigrant drop-offs in their towns and cities!)

Mayor Kasim Reed
City of Atlanta, Georgia

Mayor Martin J. Walsh
City of Boston, Massachusetts

Mayor Rahm Emanuel
City of Chicago, Illinois

Mayor Stephen K. Benjamin
City of Columbia, South Carolina

Mayor Michael B. Hancock
City of Denver, Colorado

Mayor Eric Garcetti
City of Los Angeles, California

County Executive Isiah Leggett
Montgomery County, Maryland

Mayor Michael A. Nutter
City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Mayor William Peduto
City of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Mayor Daniel L. Bianchi
City of Pittsfield, Massachusetts

Mayor Edward B. Murray
City of Seattle, Washington

Mayor Francis G. Slay
City of St. Louis, Missouri

Mayor Jonathan Rothschild
City of Tucson, Arizona

All of our posts on ‘Unaccompanied minors’ extending back several years are archived here.

Obama creates new “refugee” program for Central American kids

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

White House double whammy! First the Syrians then the “children.”

In announcing his ‘Presidential Determination’ yesterday for Fiscal Year 2015 refugee admissions, the Administration set up a new and separate program to accommodate tens of thousands of mostly Central American teenagers waiting in Guatemala, El Salvador or Honduras for their chance to get into the US.

Thanks to all who sent this story or a version of it.

Pope tells US to help the “children.” Obama obliges. Photo: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-28303720

As you read this ABC News account, remember that expanding the definition of “refugee” has in my view been what the recent Southern border invasion was all about.

And keep in mind there are several hundred thousand Central Americans living in the US legally under Temporary Protected Status*** who presumably could, under Obama’s new plan, ask to have minor relatives declared “refugees” in order to join them in America.

ABC News:

The Obama administration is initiating a program to give refugee status to some young people from Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador in response to the influx of unaccompanied minors arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Under the program, immigrants from those countries who are lawfully in the United States will be able to request that child relatives still in those three countries be resettled in the United States as refugees. The program would establish in-country processing to screen the young people to determine if they qualify to join relatives in the U.S.

In a memorandum to the State Department Tuesday, President Barack Obama allocated 4,000 slots for refugees from Latin America and the Caribbean for next year. The number is a fraction of the number of children who have already crossed the border into the United States and are awaiting deportation proceedings.

The program would not provide a path for minors to join relatives illegally in the United States, and would not apply to minors who have entered the country illegally.  [We don’t even know who is illegally in the US, so how will those illegals be identified?—ed]

Instead, it aims to set up an orderly alternative for dealing with young people who otherwise might embark on a dangerous journey to join their families in the United States.

The program is not likely to stop other minors or migrant families from seeking to cross the border. [Then why do it?—ed]

***TPS is perhaps the ultimate legal immigration scam because there is nothing temporary about it!

So where is Congress on all this? (Crickets?)

The next time you hear a dumb politician or a dumb friend say—“Legal immigration is good, but I don’t like illegal immigration”—I want you to pop them in the nose (gently of course) and tell them they don’t know what they are talking about!  Obama has just decreed that this is LEGAL immigration.

See all of our coverage of the ‘Unaccompanied minors’ crisis by clicking here.

Joe Biden’s Delaware one of the states hammered with ‘Unaccompanied alien children’

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is from an AP story so the reporter is looking to balance her piece with some nice sounding quotes from beleaguered educators, but it is nonetheless informative.

Joe Biden: We (me and Ted, God rest his soul, and Jimmy) love refugees, just don’t drop ’em off in Delaware.

According to AP almost all US states are experiencing the problem of trying to educate teenagers many of whom are illiterate in their own languages (some are tribal languages).   AP features Delaware.

And, this couldn’t be happening to a more deserving state!

Senator Joe Biden was one of the chief sponsors of the Refugee Act of 1980 which was pushed through Congress by Senator Ted Kennedy and signed into law by Jimmy Carter.  Yet, surprise! Delaware only takes a few refugees every year—you can count the number on two hands most years!

The ‘Unaccompanied alien children’ are under the legal protection of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (although they are not refugees).

From the Associated Press:

FRANKFORD, Del. (AP) — American schools are scrambling to provide services to the large number of children and teenagers who crossed the border alone in recent months.

Unaccompanied minors who made up the summer spike at the border have moved to communities of all sizes, in nearly every state, Federal data indicates, to live with a relative and await immigration decisions. The Supreme Court has ruled that schools have an obligation to educate all students regardless of their immigration status, so schools have become a safe haven for many of the tens of thousands of these young people mostly from central America living in limbo.

Delaware’s rural Sussex County has long attracted immigrants, partly because of work in chicken factories, and soybean and corn fields. The district’s population is more than one-quarter Hispanic, and for years has offered an early learning program for non-English speakers.

Still, officials were caught off guard by about 70 new students mostly from Guatemala – part of the wave crossing the border – enrolling last year, mostly at Sussex Central High School. The Indian River School District over the summer break quickly put together special classes for those needing extra English help.

[….]

The students are eager but face barriers. Some can barely read or write in their native language.

The district’s goal is to get them assimilated – and eventually into a regular high school. There, they can earn a diploma, even if that means participating in adult education programs and going to school until they are 21. [At the expense of US and local taxpayers!—ed]

The federal government (that would be good ol’ Joe) just dropped them on us!

Donald Hattier, a school board member, said advance warning would have helped with planning. The federal government, he said, “just dropped this on us.” He wonders what’s next.

“The kids are still coming across the border. This problem has not been solved,” Hattier said.

There is more, read it all.

All of our posts on ‘Unaccompanied minors’ can be found by clicking here.

So the “children” aren’t causing a financial crisis for refugee program after all!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Isn’t this just amazing!  Only a few short months ago Obama and his gang of thieves were poor-mouthing to Congress and the media about how the ‘Unaccompanied alien children’ streaming across our southern border were going to cause the refugee program to suffer (contractors might even have to lay off employees!) and as a consequence they wanted Congress to grant them billions!  Here is just one post of several we wrote—moaning in Minnesota.

Refugee eats first carrot! I guess carrot-tasting classes will be back up and running in Washington state now. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2014/08/09/carrot-tasting-classes-for-refugees-cut-due-to-unaccompanied-minors-taking-all-the-federal-cash/

And, isn’t it just amazing that as soon as Obama put off the amnesty debate until after the November election, the ‘childrens’ pipeline has magically stopped flowing.  I hope one day we will get the whole truth about who opened the spigot in the first place!

Here is AP at The Republic (hat tip:  Joanne):

MIAMI — Groups that provide refugee services across the United States expressed relief Thursday after the federal government announced the release of $71.5 million it had reprogrammed in June to deal with the thousands of unaccompanied minors who crossed the border this year.

The Department of Health and Human Services told the states on Thursday that the money would be released because the flow of migrants had fallen.

Health and Human Services Spokesman Kenneth Wolfe said the funds were released on Sept. 15, adding there were no immediate plans to withhold funds in 2015. Originally HHS had said in June that more than $90 million would be withheld as the agency dealt with a crisis involving minors streaming over the border from Mexico. Unaccompanied children who migrate to the United States also fall under the auspices of the federal refugee office.

That number was slightly reduced later to $71.5 million, but groups across the country still scrambled to scale back programs such as English language classes, job counseling and tutoring.

“Today’s announcement ensures refugees who live in Florida will get the services they need to become self-sufficient and thrive in their new communities,” said Hiram Ruiz, who heads up Florida’s refugee services.

The funds are distributed to all 50 states with the bulk of the money going to Florida, California, Texas, New York, Michigan and Minnesota.*

All of our coverage of ‘unaccompanied minors’ is here.

* The top ten states receiving refugees in 2014 (so far) are here.  Minnesota is not in the top ten.

 

Florida charities raking in the payola for ‘unaccompanied alien children’ care

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m delighted to report that there is yet one more group digging into the financial documents of groups (like Catholic Charities) claiming to be not-for-profit charitable organizations but instead are living off the taxpayer’s dime.

Here is FloridaWatchdog.org (hat tip: Brad):

Rochelle Tatrai-Ray is CEO of Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services, a $35 million dollar a year charity caring for the “children” in Florida. http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/morning-edition/2014/05/gulf-coast-jewish-family-community-services-names.html

MIAMI — Florida nonprofits have taken in more than 3,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America who illegally crossed the southern border, but those organizations are being paid handsomely by taxpayers for their charity.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System, or TAGGS, reports Florida nonprofits have received $21 million thus far in 2014 to care for the children who came with a wave of illegals earlier this year.

His House Children’s Home in Miami, a nonprofit providing residential care for abused, abandoned and neglected children, received the lion’s share of that cash, about $10 million, nearly double what they got last year.

Catholics Charities of the Archdiocese of Miami received more than $4.3 million to care for 300 border children. Millions more went to The Gulf Coast Jewish Family Services Inc. in Pinellas County, Neighbor to Family in Volusia County, Sandy Pines Hospital in Palm Beach County and The Children`s Home Inc. in Hillsborough. For many of those groups, it was the first time they received federal grant money.

Read it all.

Florida Watchdog wanted to know how the money was being spent and if anyone was monitoring it. (We have been told over the years that there are no financial audits done of federal ‘refugee’ contractors.)  Florida Watchdog didn’t have much luck, but pointed readers to one group in Florida—The Gulf Coast Jewish Family and Community Services—which breached a contract with the county when it turned a disabled senior center into a home for Central American boys.

See Gulf Coast Jewish and Family Services recent Form 990 here. (Their annual income that year was $28 million not the $35 cited in the bizjournal.)  The CEO makes over $200,000 annually and the organization received over $10 million in government grants.

Gulf Coast Jewish and Family Services is a subcontractor of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, one of the federal government’s top nine refugee resettlement contractors which monopolize migrant resettlement in the US.

The federal migrant resettlement contractors which we have followed for years:

All of our coverage of the ‘unaccompanied minors’ boondoggle can be found here.