Tag: Unaccompanied minors

Lutherans to TX Governor Abbott: We are Paid to Take Care of Foreigners NOT Americans!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

That is the response to Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s suggestion on Fox News earlier this week that groups like Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service focus their ‘Christian’ charity on vulnerable Texans.

Governor Abbott’s plea: ‘Humanitarian’ groups should take care of Texans first!

Abbott is the only governor who has said his state needs a break from the massive influx of illegal aliens, asylum seekers and refugees the state has received (like it or not!) for a decade or more.

He suggests that the ‘non-profit’ groups that are pushing refugee resettlement reprioritize and take care of Texans first, especially the homeless, because he says he does not want Texas to be California.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service‘s new CEO, former Michelle Obama staffer, shot back in a story at the Texas Tribune on Wednesday:

Gov. Greg Abbott says Texas nonprofits helping refugees should focus on homelessness. Refugee groups say it doesn’t work that way.

Former Obama staffer, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, became President of LIRS when Linda Hartke was pushed out over some sort of mismanagement scandal.

Gov. Greg Abbott dug his heels in Tuesday in a TV interview explaining why Texas will be the only state in the nation to reject refugees seeking resettlement, saying that aid groups working with refugees should instead prioritize other Texans in need, including the state’s homeless population.

[….]

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president of the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said money for resettlement can’t be spent on homelessness or any other safety net programs.

“The federal funding that nonprofit resettlement agencies administer limits its use so it can only be spent through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program,” she said in an email.

More here.

Ms Vignarajah is saying that they aren’t paid to take care of Americans, their millions come from the taxpayers to take care of foreigners only!

So how many millions are we talking about?

Let’s visit USASpending.gov and find out.

Well, this is interesting!  Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) has in the last 12 months received as much as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!

And, although the Bishops have experienced a steep reduction in their federal taxpayer provided ‘gifts’ since their top Obama year, LIRS has not!

Haven’t they been crying the blues that the President is causing them to close offices?

One reason for their steady stream of funding appears to be that the Lutherans’ budget is being propped up via $38 million from Unaccompanied Alien Children grants, while the USCCB in the same time period received $21 million for what should be more accurately labeled Unaccompanied Alien Teens.  84% of the ‘children’ crossing the border without a parent are above the age of 13.  Two thirds of the teens are males.

Yup! Ms. V is right, all of their federal funding is to take care of foreigners, many here illegally, so, silly Abbott, why on earth would the humanitarian Christians bother with Americans, with vulnerable Texans—there is no MONEY in it!

From USA Spending:

Note that they are down only about $3 million from their top Obama year while the US Catholic Bishops were down by $50 million. Why? I don’t know.

 

See that 60% of their federal boodle is for whatever they are doing with the Unaccompanied Alien Teens (illegal aliens). Close the border and save the taxpayers millions!

 

BTW, I’ve been told by a reliable source that it was the Obama Administration that made this revealing USASpending.gov resource available to us.

Now, it is always fun to have a look at a recent IRS Form 990 for these ‘religious charities.’  This is the salaries page for the most recent one I found for LIRS which is 85%-90% FEDERALLY FUNDED in any given year.

Former CEO Linda Hartke was hitting the $400,000 mark just as she was headed out the door. You were paying 85-90% of that salary and the salaries of the other six-digit employees.  I wonder if they are paying Ms. Vignarajah that much?  (We will find out when their next Form 990 is made public).

 

This is fun. I can’t wait to have a look at the other ‘religious charities’ which use our money to “welcome the stranger” rather than to take care of  Americans.

I sure hope good Lutherans are speaking up and making it clear that LIRS does not represent them!

Oh, and I should have mentioned that LIRS is one of the three federal contractors that filed a lawsuit and successfully halted, for now, President Trump’s first effort to reform the UN-driven Refugee Admissions Program.

Number of Unaccompanied Alien Teens Entering US Hits Highest Levels in History

~ Ann Corcoran

That is what the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement Jonathan Hayes told Congress this week.

The ‘children’ coming to America by train through Mexico in 2016! 

Actually he calls them “unaccompanied alien children,” but heck when only 15% of the “children” crossing the border illegally without parents are under 12-years-old, we might just as well call them more accurately “teens.”  (See data here.)

Virtually all of them are from three countries: Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.

And, caring for the ‘children’ is costing American taxpayers well over a billion a year!

Here is CNS News,

HHS: Number of Unaccompanied Alien Children Entering US Reaches Highest in History

(CNSNews.com) – The number of unaccompanied children (UACs) entering the United States during fiscal year 2019 has grown to levels never seen before, Jonathan Hayes, director of the HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), told Congress on Thursday.

According to his written testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, DHS referred more than 67,000 UACs to ORR as of Sept. 16, 2019, which is the highest number in the program’s history.

Compare that to the 59,170 DHS referrals in FY 2016, the second highest number of referrals on record.

At the moment, HHS has less than 6,000 UACs in its care, but the number fluctuates on a daily basis, Hayes said.

“The number of children in our care is down from a recent high of over 13,700 just a few months ago in June. This decline is due to a decrease in daily referrals over the last few months, and ORR’s ability to maintain a steady high discharge rate of UAC placement with sponsors,” he testified.

Curious about where they have placed tens of thousands of teenagers, I checked the data and here are some fun facts.

Top recipient states of alien (mostly) teens for the first ten months of FY19 are:

(States which ‘welcomed’ over 3,000 in ten months!)

Texas (8,521)

California (7,302)

Florida (6,659)

New York (5,439)

Maryland (4,102)

Virginia (3,645)

New Jersey (3,644)

More here.

When you visit that data add up the last 6 years for your state to see the real impact these “children” must be having on your school systems.  Maryland, for example, added 18,330 UACs since October 2013!

Now have a look at the lucky counties during that same time period (here):

Harris Co. Tx (4,346)

LA County, CA (3,057)

Miami Dade Co. FL (1,528)

Palm Beach Co. FL (1,395)

Prince Georges Co. MD (1,372)

Dallas Co. TX (1,323)

Suffolk Co. NY (1,293)

Fairfax Co. VA (1,134)

Montgomery Co. MD (1,015)

More here.

By the way, when I first started writing about these new ‘refugees’ they were referred to as ‘unaccompanied minors’ so that is the tag I have continued to use.

In the NGO salary sweeps, Juan Sanchez has David Miliband beat by a mile!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As I mentioned the other day, the issue of the border crossing kids is one I discussed back in the Obama days rather extensively, but the ‘children,’ the mostly unaccompanied teenage boys crossing our borders, are not refugees and so the issue isn’t at the top of my radar screen right now.
 

Juan Sanchez
Juan Sanchez, doing well by doing good!

 
And, the subject is ably covered by so many others.
That said, I do get some pleasure out of demonstrating that Leftwing do-gooders, whose hearts bleed for the children, also happen to be raking in big government bucks from you—the US taxpayer—for their good works.
Southwest Key Programs is one example.  You can read more about it here at wikipedia .  It is largely funded with government grants and contracts.
Reader Mary alerted me to the huge taxpayer-funded salary its President and CEO Juan Sanchez is pulling down.  CNN says it is now at $1.5 million.
I find it amusing that now that Trump is in office these outrageous taxpayer supported NGO salaries are suddenly newsworthy.
David Miliband (CEO of another federal contractor—-The International Rescue Committee) is a piker at $671,749.
The most recent Form 990 I could find (tax year ending in August 2016) for Southwest Key Programs is this one from Obama’s time in office—clearly the Obama ORR was shelling out big bucks to care for detained children.
 
Almost completely government funded….
Screenshot (1321)_LI
 
And, here is the salaries page….
Screenshot (1322)_LI
These are salaries you pay for care of the illegal alien children until they are released in to America when sponsors are found, or upon turning 18!

 
Go here for all of my posts on the UACs.  Some of our usual refugee contractors are also on this gravy train.

Federal Office of Refugee Resettlement playing hardball with immigration lawyers it funds

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A little background first….
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services somehow, awhile ago, was tasked with taking care of the Unaccompanied Alien Children entering the US illegally. In fact, their involvement created a huge new money stream to at least two refugee contractors—the US Conference of Catholic Bishops and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service—which received government grants and contracts to care for the ‘children.’

Scot Lloyd 3
Director of ORR Scot Lloyd had to face some really witchy Congresswomen over the issue of abortion for the illegal alien children. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/10/28/no-borders-left-aimed-at-destroying-orr-director-scott-lloyd/

But, in yet another demonstration of the expanding taxpayer funding to care for illegals, the ORR also has a grant program to provide the ‘children’ with legal services.
Keep in mind, however, that the ‘children’ (mostly teenage boys) are not refugees. Refugees must prove they will be persecuted if returned to their home country.  The Central American lawbreakers may be running from crime and poverty, but those are not criteria for receiving asylum (refugee status).
In recent months a controversy has exploded for ORR because some of the illegal alien ‘children’ claim they have a constitutional right to an abortion and ORR is saying, NO! They do not.

You fund the Open Borders industry!

ORR is warning a large legal aid contractor that they could be removed from the federal dole if they instruct the ‘children’ about abortion rights.

Who knew ORR would have such gumption!
The Leftwing WaPo clearly is disconcerted by this move….

A major legal services group for immigrant children told its lawyers nationwide not to discuss abortion access, even if minors in custody ask for help understanding their legal rights, for fear it would jeopardize a multimillion-dollar contract with the Department of Health and Human Services.

The constraints on what government-funded lawyers can say to young detainees was contained in an email from the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice, which said it acted after a phone call with an HHS employee. Vera’s instruction to lawyers comes as the Trump administration has tried in court to block access to abortion procedures for undocumented teens in federal custody.

“We know for a fact that there is a very real risk to the entire legal services program for children in [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody if issues other than immigration are addressed in consultations or representation, the abortion issue in particular,” a Vera official cautioned in a Feb. 2 email obtained by The Washington Post.

ANNE_MARIE_MULACHY_0020
In an internal e-mail someone forwarded to the WaPo, Mulcahy says that VERA does not want to risk losing the millions of dollars taxpayers give them to represent the Unaccompanied Alien Children.

The government pays $57 million a year under a five-year contract to Vera, which works with 38 organizations in six regions to provide legal help to minors who have crossed the border illegally and without their parents.

In the email, Vera official Anne Marie Mulcahy said she was sending it after a conversation with the government analyst who manages the program within the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) at HHS.

During the call, the employee “directed us to ensure that Vera’s legal services providers are not talking to children in HHS custody about abortion,” wrote Mulcahy, who is the director of Vera’s unaccompanied minors program.

Mulcahy instructed lawyers to immediately strip references to abortion from “Know Your Rights” legal pamphlets and said lawyers could refer children with abortion-related questions to other attorneys.

[….]

The office is responsible for the care of approximately 7,700 minors in custody, nearly 70 percent of whom are boys, according to HHS. The minors are facing possible deportation to countries such as El Salvador and Honduras…..

There is much more here at the WaPo.
Below is a screenshot page of a recent Form 990 for VERA, note that the vast majority of their income comes from you—US taxpayers.  In order to view the 990, go to ProPublica here and follow links. If you visit their Form 990, don’t miss the salaries page!

vera form 990
You paid VERA lawyers $41.5 million in 2014 to represent the illegal alien children. Obviously VERA could not exist without federal funding!

 

Immigration is big business in America, not just for the global corporations greedy for cheap labor, but for the extensive industry the federal government runs through its grants and contracts like those to VERA—Institute of Justice.

Go for it! ORR should cut off their taxpayer-funded money stream.

US Bishops lambast Trump over closure of Central American Minors program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As we told you the other day, the Trump Administration has closed a completely illegal program at the US State Department that was created out of thin air by Obama’s team in 2014.

Obama had taken it upon himself to simply write refugee law!

Besides the fact that youths (mostly male teens) flooding north from Central America are economic migrants and in some cases escaping violence, they are NOT refugees who must prove they were being persecuted for race, religion, political persuasion etc. to be legitimate refugees. Escaping violence is not a criteria in the internationally understood definition of a ‘refugee.’

Bishop immigration
Vasquez: Ending the program perpetuates family breakdown, never mind that the parents didn’t stay home with their children! And, the parents can go home to embrace their children at any time!

And, of course, no where in this whiny article at Catholic News Service does it mention that the Bishops Migration Fund is nearly 100% funded by taxpayer dollars. See here.

They NEVER mention their federal funding to take care of the “children.”

Here is Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, head of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration:

Vasquez offered prayers for those affected.

“We continue to pray and express our support for parents who endure anxiety and emotional hardship knowing their children will continue to languish in violence; and to the children themselves, who will not be able to reunite and embrace their parents,” he said.

The next time someone says something like this in your presence ask, so if that parent was so concerned about the welfare of his or her children, why did they leave the child in a hell hole and illegally go to the US for a better life for themselves?

And, if they are so worried now they could reunite easily—in their home country.

The illegal parent here in America is responsible for reuniting his own family by going home!