Tag: Unaccompanied minors

New York Lutheran church may house alien children because the church is broke

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 20th:  What do you know, change of plans, “children” not going there after all.  Hat tip: Robin

A “financially troubled” Lutheran Church on Long Island riled the community of Commack recently when it said it was considering housing some of the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ flooding the US border in recent months.

A NYC fire fighter who lives next door said:  “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”

Lutheran church in Commack, NY could become a “hotel” for the unaccompanied alien children. http://www.dailygazette.com/news/2014/aug/16/plan-send-immigrant-kids-ny-church/

Who put them up to it—-Lutheran Social Services of New York *** which says it has the bucks to pay (an affiliate of the big kahuna Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service).

From Newsday (hat tip: Caroline):

A Lutheran church in Commack may host some of the tens of thousands of immigrant children illegally crossing the United States’ border with Mexico mainly to reunite with family here, the church’s pastor said Tuesday.

The financially troubled Holy Cross Lutheran Church had to cancel a meeting last week after outraged neighbors packed the church to protest the proposal, but Rev. Dennis Walker said the congregation is still considering it and hopes to meet in coming weeks to decide.

Walker said community opposition was being fueled by misinformation about the proposal, and he hopes “people will reconsider in a more rational light. This is minimal impact on the community with substantial benefits” such as jobs for workers who would remodel the building to create the living quarters.  [Here is one of my questions, if the “children’s” border surge ended tomorrow and the church had already been remodeled, then what?  Would it house other migrants of some sort?—ed]

The proposal calls for about 40 children, 4 to 17, to be housed at the church at any one time between seven and 30 days, Walker said. The children would be in transit from federal immigration detention facilities to relatives in the New York area, and would leave only for medical appointments or other important issues, Walker said.

So who does have moola (federal cash!)?

The proposal was brought to the church by Lutheran Social Services of New York, the Manhattan-based agency that would cover cost for the renovation, using federal funds.

Nearby residents firmly oppose the idea. “It’s scary,” said Sheryl Cambria, 35, a special-education teacher at Lindenhurst High School. “I have two little kids. Who’s to say my house is going to be safe?” New York City firefighter Michael Cantwell, 44, said, “It’s basically going to be a hotel right next to my house.”

Not just in Commack, New York, but from sea to shining sea, this is what it is all about, the good pastor admits—

—they get money (your tax dollars) and get to “do the Christian thing!”  Who can beat that!

Walker said the Commack church is in dire financial straits after a day care business stopped renting space in June.

The immigrant children program could bring in $8,000 to $10,000 a month, help pay off a $25,000 debt — and allow the church to do the Christian thing, he said.

***According to Guidestar, Lutheran Social Services of New York does not file a Form 990 tax return with the IRS because it says it’s exempt as a “church.”  I’ve seen that occasionally over the years (of course, it’s a way of hiding their financials from the public) and wonder that the ACLU isn’t interested in examining this situation—federal money flowing directly to a church (and not a “religious” IRS-approved non-profit group).  Hmmm!

Any forensic accountants following the money trail?

Endnote:  The AP has a longer story posted on this past Saturday, here.  Note that the AP reporter tried to talk with someone at Lutheran Social Services of New York (offices on Riverside Dr at the “God Box” where God is a Leftwinger) and they refused to comment.

For more on ‘unaccompanied minors’ here at RRW, click here.

Wall Street Journal parrots migrant contractors’ wail for more tax dollars

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Geez, you would think that the big media like the Wall Street Journal (Miriam Jordan) might actually do a little more work than to simply join the orchestrated PR chorus (lobbying campaign!) of the likes of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) wailing for more taxpayer funding so they don’t have to reduce staff or heaven-forbid close offices and stop traveling or going to meetings in the wake of the “children’s” border surge.

In fact, as a regular reader here, you know both of those “refugee” (referred to now as “migrant”) contractors (the biggest crybabies) are getting money from two of the US Health and Human Services (Office of Refugee Resettlement) pockets—the one for ‘unaccompanied alien children’ and for the usual refugee flow of third-worlders into America.

Here is the Wall Street Journal’s ho-hum story (virtually the same one we are seeing from publications large and small).  Emphasis is mine:

The influx of Central American children across the southern U.S. border in recent months is having an impact on another immigrant community: refugees from Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

Government funds that would ordinarily go to resettlement programs for refugees have been diverted to help pay for the costs of coping with the recent wave of unaccompanied minors, and it isn’t clear if the money will be entirely restored.

Then get this fear-mongering!

Now retired President and CEO of Lutheran Community Services Northwest, Roberta Nestaas, was making over $200,000 in salary and benefits at the time of her retirement earlier this summer.

“Unfortunately, you are taking from one vulnerable population to provide to another vulnerable population,” said Jacinda Paschoal, regional operations manager for Lutheran Community Services Northwest, which resettles refugees in Oregon and Washington.

She said that tuberculosis testing, follow-up and treatment as well as services for school-aged children and elderly refugees are among those impacted by cuts. More than a dozen staff positions are slated to be eliminated in Portland, she said, because of the reallocation of resources.

I’m betting most readers are now saying—WTH!—we are bringing refugees with tuberculosis into the US and paying for their treatment? YES! Old people who need care too?   YES!

And, then this is the blood-boiling part of the story (if that wasn’t enough).   The article suggests that these contractors use their own “self-generated funding” to pay for their good works.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and other organizations that serve refugees have taken their concerns to congressional representatives. Among others, the organizations, using federal and self-generated funding, help refugees find housing and work as well as enroll in English classes and get vaccinated.  [The reporter could very easily have put a qualifier in this sentence that told readers that MOST of the money they spend is federal money—ed]

How much is federal and how much is private CHARITABLE money?  Truth please!

The USCCB is 98% supported by tax dollars and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is 97% supported by public money.  Another galling thing we never hear about is that these federal contractors were lobbying for the Senate’s Gang of Eight amnesty bill! On our dime?

Since Jordan quotes from the whiners at Lutheran Community Services Northwest, let’s just have a look at their finances!

Here is their Form 990 for 2013 (year ending June 30th, 2013):

They received income that year of $21,604,804 and $19,557,224 came directly from US taxpayers as government grants.  There are other categories of income that are also possibly streams from public money as well. But, assuming just the government grants, that means they are 86% funded by you!

Their CEO, Roberta Nestaas, retired on June 30th of this year and was pulling down a salary and benefits package worth $221,935.  Presumably new CEO David Duea will do just as well (by doing good).

Their expenses include $13.7 million in wages and another nearly $2 million in “employee benefits.”  Their current officers and directors compensation was $371,575.

Office expenses and occupancy were over $2.3 million.

Travel: $389,574

Meetings and conferences:  $219,353

They even have an expense called “Volunteer expenses” which came to $176,510 in that one year.

So now why do you think there is all this wailing going on from quasi-government/quasi-religious supposed non-profits who want more of your money?

Come on!  How about some real investigative reporting for a change!

All of our coverage of ‘unaccompanied minors’ is here (the archive goes back several years).  Were the US Bishops partially responsible for the surge?  We think so!

UACs: Appropriate food, appropriate music, medical care, and public education (in Mayan?)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We have a troika of stories this morning on what the ‘unaccompanied alien children’ invasion means for US and local taxpayers going forward.

Since it’s still summer vacation (and some of you are still at Martha’s Vineyard), I don’t think the full impact will be felt for another couple of weeks, but get ready for it.

First, this morning reader Nisi sent us this article from the Washington Times yesterday which tells us a bit more about how the refugee-wannabee “children” are being cared for by Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS) contractors.

Here is how the detailed article (with a lot of facts and updates) opens:

From culturally sensitive music to special meals for the lactose intolerant, the organizations the federal government is paying to house and care for the children who have surged across the border illegally are taking pains to make sure they are as comfortable as possible.

Dietitians scrutinize the menus each day to make sure they include enough whole grains but not whole milk. Counselors offer life skills classes in Spanish, and intensive English language training, including use of the Rosetta Stone program. Doctors and dentists treat the children at taxpayers’ expense — often the first medical care of the children’s lives.

Then we must educate the “children” says the Obama Department of Education.

Here is the news at Breitbart about the fact sheet released earlier this week, hat tip: Erich.

And, here is a really informative article from World Net Daily (yesterday) by Leo Hohmann about the impact of the order (to educate the children) which is already being felt in local school districts entitled: ‘Some speak Mayan’: Illegal kids swamp public schools.

I bet they don’t have a Rosetta Stone program for twenty tribal versions of Mayan!

Dr. Eloise Barron (right), Hall County Asst. Superintendent of Schools (obviously working and not at the ‘Vineyard’) telling local school board members what they are up against. http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=278155

Imagine trying to educate a student who cannot speak English or any of the common Spanish dialects, has never spent a day in school in his life and is now well into his teens.

As school starts in districts around the country, this is precisely the task many teachers will face as thousands of unaccompanied alien children from Central America show up for class.

At Hall County Schools about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta, 35 Central American students have enrolled so far and another 15 or so are expected this week, school officials told WND. Some will need expensive interpreters for obscure dialects, if they can even be found.

“There are 21 dialects of Spanish, all so different,” said Eloise Barron, assistant superintendent for teachers and learning at Hall County Schools.

And some of the Central American children are arriving from remote villages that speak only in Mayan, which is not one language but a family of more than 20 ancient tribal tongues.

“Some speak Mayan, and so the problem we’re having is we have about a third of our student population is Hispanic to begin with and some of the individuals we have we’re unable to converse with because they don’t know Spanish, and of course not English, so we’re having difficulty communicating,” Barron said.

There is more, read it all.

And be sure to see an earlier piece by ‘pungentpeppers’ about the legal needs of the “children” and how there aren’t sufficient interpreters for them.

For all of our coverage of the ‘unaccompanied minors’ border surge, go here.

Chinese, pretending to be persecuted Christians, caught at the US border

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Cheat sheet!  Where was Jesus born? Name his apostles! When is Christmas?

It isn’t just the “children” from Central America streaming across the wide open US southern border as this ABC News team discovered.  Hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers.’

Sign at the US border. http://patdollard.com/2014/08/usmexico-border-signs-posted-for-illegals-increasingly-written-in-chinese/

From ABC-13 Eyewitness News (emphasis is mine):

But children are only part of the story.

And ABC-13 saw first hand why. As the Ted Oberg Investigates team was walking with Border Patrol agents along the trees and scrub brush about 500 feet from the Rio Grande, a group of nine men wandered out of a thicket.

The nine were from China.

With the help of ABC-13 colleague Miya Shay translating on the phone ABC-13 learned the men said that they are from various provinces in China. They first flew to France, they said — it was unclear if they were smuggled — and then to Mexico.

They were then taken across the Rio Grande in a boat to the shores of Texas near where ABC-13 was walking.

“China? They will pay somewhere from 30 to 40 thousand dollars to be smuggled,” Bidegain said. “They came through the same network in Mexico as everyone else.”

Unlike the children who swim across, these men were dry. They carried water in plastic soda bottles.

They also were prepared in another way.

ABC-13 found a document one of the men had dropped in the brush. It was a Christian checklist, with answers to questions such as, “Where was Jesus born, where did he grow up,” “Jesus had how many apostles.. what are their names,” and “When is Christmas.”

There are also hand-written scribbles on the bottom of the note. The name the founder of a local church. A reference to 1922, the year the church was founded. And the location of the church, Fuzhou, China.

Border Patrol agents said this makes it appear they were likely coached to tell agents that they wanted to seek asylum in the US because they were Christian with credible fear of persecution in their home province of China.

“A lot will claim to be Christian,” Bidegain said. “They are coached on the story.”

And it’s not just the Chinese.

There is more, read it all.

As we have previously reported, Chinese “asylum seekers” are the most fortunate of all would-be political refugees reaching our shores on their own—-the largest number of successful asylum seekers in the US are Chinese. See Homeland Security’s ‘Annual Flow Report’ (page 6) for stats, here.  As far as I can tell this 2012 report is the most recent one available.  Where is 2013???

Is the “remittance culture” driving the “children” to America?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“Why work when money just pours in from Western Union regularly?”

Update August 12th:  More on remittance culture in Breitbart article about illegal Hondurans in US.

A few years ago when I was researching a story on “temporary protected status” I came across a comment by George Bush, or someone in his State Department, saying that they had to extend TPS for Salvadorans because the money they sent home kept the country afloat.

That money being sent out of the US by immigrants is known as remittances.  Indeed, we have lots of posts here over the years about remittances to Somalia and the problems with it.

MD Del. Ana Sol Gutierrez in front of Salvadoran Money transfer business. Photo credit: Greg Dohler/The Gazette http://potomacteapartyreport.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/maryland-delegate-money-is-a-principal-driver-of-the-foreign-governments-interest-in-immigration-reform/

But, I hadn’t noticed much written about whether the three major countries (Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador) sending their ‘unaccompanied alien children’ to America were turning a blind eye and actually condoning the illegal migration because they know money (a lot of it taxpayer dollars!) would soon flow southward.

In fact when Rush Limbaugh was making fun of Obama and saying why was he so willing to steal the best and the brightest of Central American youths and thus rob those countries of a future, I wondered then why the leaders of those countries weren’t angry at the loss of their children.  Is it because the lure of easy money now is greater than any concern for the future of their countries?

So I looked around and found this really good article by Seth Daniel at the Chelsea Record (Massachusetts) entitled: Influx Has Everything to Do with Remittance Culture.

The gist of it is that the “children” will send money ‘home’ and that the flood of easy money ultimately destroys those poor countries, and it destroys local economies in the US as well.

After a lead-in about men coming to America to support their families and finding things tough, Daniel says this:

But make no mistake, they did and still do send money.

The Record reported last year that in 2012, nearly $250 million cash left the communities of Chelsea, Revere, East Boston and Everett in the form of remittances (money sent back to one’s home country). Some $2 billion left the state of Massachusetts alone in 2012. That’s a fortune, and most of it went to Central America – specifically El Salvador and Guatemala. The paper is still waiting to get those same numbers for 2013 from the state, but early reports are that even more was remitted.

Consulates from those countries told the Record in that very same report last year that their countries are deeply dependent upon money sent to family members from American relatives. It has become an important part of life in their countries.

And so what about those countries?

If you talk to assimilated natives of those particular countries – and really any country with a large remittance culture – they will tell you (maybe only secretly) that sending so much money home has ruined the society. People who keep residences in their home countries will tell you that they cannot find anyone to hire in order to maintain those properties. So many formerly hard-working people prefer to just wait for the weekly remittance from America. Why work when money just pours in from Western Union regularly?

This isn’t only in Central America, again. It’s the status quo wherever large sums of remittance money make up a significant portion of a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Then there’s the problem with what happens to a poor economy when so much money starts rolling in without anything being produced or anybody earning said money. Prices skyrocket for food and housing. Land prices go through the roof. Heavy taxes are imposed. Everything all the sudden costs way more than it did, and the money that rolls in suddenly isn’t enough. The more money that is sent, the shorter it stretches.

Then the frantic phone calls begin to come – the money you sent isn’t enough. We need more.

What once cost $1 is now $10.

Destroying the local economy in Massachusetts

Daniel continues:

….right now we have hundreds of thousands of young adults and older teens pouring over the border to get to America by whatever means necessary. They are certainly fleeing violence, but there is also an aspect of them fleeing in order to get a job and send more money home.

That was expressly said by two women who spoke last week at the Collaborative – one of which who said she needed to send money home to her mother as soon as possible. Naturally, $1 doesn’t go as far as it used to and people need to eat.

The remittance culture needs to be addressed within this debate, but no one wants to talk about it. Just like Broadway Chelsea seems to be ground zero for the unaccompanied minor debate, it is also ground zero for cash leaving the country. Millions upon millions of dollars leave the community via Broadway Chelsea every year. Just a million of that money would transform the outlook of business on Broadway. That’s why this system cripples the community – puts local business out of business because any and all disposable income is being sent instead of spent.

Read it all.  And please spread it around, it deserves greater attention then it’s gotten at this local news outlet.

Of course the NGO drivers of the illegal migration don’t give a damn about such matters—it is all about more Democrat voters, sinking our social service system, and changing America forever.

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