UNHCR Guterres meets with Catholic Bishops in Washington, praises them for protecting Muslims

03/18/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Guterres also said the US must show the world how to be generous to refugees (bring in the Syrians!) and that European nations are just flat out “very selfish” (note he didn’t chastise the Muslim countries, like Saudi Arabia, which refuse refugees and deport any who sneak in).

Antonio Guterres is the former Socialist President of Portugal and noted in his tet-a-tet with the Bishops that not much in the violent world has changed in the ten years he has been the UN High Commissioner for Refugees—gee I wonder why—could it be continued Muslim aggression?

UNHCR Guterres at the Washington, DC offices of the Bishops. The word around town is that the US State Department funds this office! That is the Bishop’s migration chief Johnny Young (center).

Before we tell you about the meeting, keep the following information firmly in mind. This is where the USCCB Migration and Refugee Services gets its money—mostly from the US taxpayer! From their most recent published annual report, here (p.11). The USCCB is effectively a federal agency! They are the largest of the nine major federal refugee contractors.

Revenue (in rounded numbers)

Federal grants/contracts: $66 million

Refugee travel loans (your tax dollars too): $3.6 million

Total revenue: $71 million (which leaves less than $1.5 million from private charitable giving)

Guterres visits the Bishops (he was probably in town to lobby the Obama Administration to open our doors to Syrians). From the National Catholic Reporter:

The role of the Catholic church is invaluable in keeping refugees safe, said the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, but his agency and others working with migrants need much, much more.

Speaking to a meeting of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration and staff members of church agencies that deal with migrants, Guterres said the church is vital to helping victims of situations such as the volatile upheaval in the Central African Republic.

There, although the recent conflict is often described as a Christians versus Muslims crisis, the reality is that “religion is being used by unscrupulous political partisans,” Guterres said. That created an environment that’s very difficult for humanitarian agencies to handle. “They began using religion for propaganda.”

Guterres said several times during his meeting Monday that although much of the violence in Central African Republic appears to be based upon religion, the reality is that in many hot spots there, the Catholic church is keeping Muslims safe. That includes the chief imam of Bangui, Omar Kobine Layama, who has been sleeping in the home of Bangui Archbishop Dieudonne Nzapalainga for safety.

Conflicts unchanging over ten years!

Guterres, a former prime minister of Portugal, said in the nearly 10 years he has headed the U.N. agency charged with protecting and resettling the world’s refugees, he has come to see that the type of conflicts around the world are both unchanging and multiplying.

We are all for free speech, but it is just so infuriating that this is being said on our dime! Europe trying to save itself from cultural and economic annihilation is selfish? Johnny and Antonio probably went off to a lavish lunch on us as well!

European nations, for example, “have become very selfish,” he said. Although many European countries are dependent upon migrants to maintain the vitality of their society, new laws are making it difficult for refugees and other migrants to resettle.

Guterres: Catholics need to keep lobbying the government to bring in more refugees, especially the Syrians!

He urged the church to continue to advocate for the U.S. government to set an example for the world of generous treatment of people who must flee their homelands.

“The U.S. has the largest refugee resettlement program in the world,” Guterres said. “The way the U.S. behaves is extremely important” to how the rest of the world responds.

He said he hopes the U.S. will soon announce a resettlement program for Syrians…

Every American Catholic concerned about the Bishops’ hands being in the taxpayers’ pockets (and thus possibly being controlled by the federal government) must start speaking up in your parishes.

American taxpayers will support 60,000 unaccompanied minors this year predicts USCCB

02/22/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ migration office, which you (US taxpayers) are presently funding for the majority of its budget, has released a report predicting 60,000 illegal alien ‘kids’ will cross US borders this year. Some will be released to relatives and others will come under the Bishops’ care.

They say the ‘kids’ are escaping lawlessness at home and they deny that push factors include a pending ‘amnesty’ or Obama’s welcoming Dreamer policies. So because there is lawlessness around the world we are expected to welcome the kids!

This is a long article, but it is well-worth reading the entire thing for an insight into this latest phenomenon surely aided and abetted (if not entirely hatched) by the open borders lobby.

From the National Catholic Register (hat tip: ‘pungentpeppers’):

60,000 Unaccompanied Minors Could Arrive in U.S. in 2014, Warns Bishops’ Report

…last November, staff from the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Department of Migration and Refugee Services, the largest refugee resettlement agency in the world, organized a mission to Mexico and Central America to examine the reasons for increased number of young migrants crossing the border.

The resulting report, issued in January by the USCCB delegation led by Bishop Mark Seitz of El Paso, Texas, warned that an estimated 60,000 undocumented minors — referred to in U.S. law as “Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) — could arrive in this country before the close of 2014.

“The delegation found that a series of interrelated factors have contributed to this dramatic increase in migration and that a ‘perfect storm’ of a number of these root causes has coalesced to create this phenomenon,” according to the report. [LOL! they later say that none of the perfect storm has to do with a pending amnesty or Obama’s policies!—ed]

Report: It is all about a breakdown in the rule of law where they live. So, I guess that means it’s o.k. to break our laws too?

Poverty, weak educational opportunities and a bleak future with no job prospects were part of the problem. The report also noted that many youngsters hoped to be reunited with family members, especially parents who may already be working in this country.

However, the most urgent reasons for the “fear and hopelessness” that spurred teenagers to embark on a harrowing journey to the United States were “generalized violence at the state and local levels and a corresponding breakdown of the rule of law.”

Numbers dramatically increasing:

The majority of unaccompanied minors are taken into custody by the U.S. border patrol, placed in a shelter and then released to relatives, with the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services providing most of the initial services.

Last year, an estimated 20,000 minors passed through the “shelter release” program run by the HHS Office of Refugee Services, almost double the number of 2012. In the first quarter for this fiscal year, 9,881 minors had already been placed in shelters, with daily costs averaging about $400 per person, according to a recent report in The Wall Street Journal. [Taxpayer dollars pay the Bishops to take care of those not released, but articles like this one never make that clear—ed]

The USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (not mentioned here) are the two major federal contractors paid by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to take care of the ‘kids.’ We previously learned that when the kids reach the age of 18 they are free in America!

At the national level, the USCCB department of Migration and Refugee Services lobbies to improve options and services for undocumented minors, and oversees a country-wide network of mostly Church-affiliated agencies that administer foster care programs.

The USCCB also provides the kids with lawyers, according to the article.

A nod to the critics:

Critics of the federal shelter release program argue that by facilitating family reunification and providing services like free education, the shelter release program is encouraging young migrants to make a hazardous journey and to violate U.S. laws.

There would be no USCCB Office of Migration and Refugee Services without your money.

Go to page 11 of the USCCB 2012 annual report, here.

Note that out of a total revenue stream of $70.9 million, government grants and contracts were an astounding $65.9 million. They also garnered another $3.6 million from refugee travel loans (that is your money too!). We loan money for refugees to get to America and then the USCCB, acting as a collection agency, collects the money from the refugee and returns some portion of it to the taxpayer, but keeps a cut for its labors.

So, if my math is correct, this means that 98% of the USCCB’s immigration work is funded by YOU! And, that would mean that 98% of lobbyist Appleby’s salary is paid by you (remember they are actively supporting amnesty legislation). We have heard, but have never seen published officially anywhere, that the US State Department covers the entire cost of their DC office as well!

See our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ here.

Center for Immigration Studies challenges legality of Obama Administration’s relaxation of security screening for refugees

02/07/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

CIS Director of Policy Studies, Jessica Vaughn: this is how we end up with families like the Tsarnaevs.

Another case where Obama used his pen? (or his minions did!)

We told you yesterday that Obama, bowing to international pressure and lobbying from refugee resettlement contractors anxious to bring in thousands of Syrians this year, has relaxed a security screening law put in place after 9/11, here.

Now, we see, that the Center for Immigration Studies is challenging his legal right to do that.

From Catholic Online:

Former State Department official and current director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies Jessica Vaughan questioned the administration’s right to unilaterally change the law.

“[T]here is a very legitimate question as to whether the administration actually has the authority to change the law in this way,” Vaughan wrote in an email. “It seems to me that they are announcing that they will be disregarding yet another law written by Congress that they don’t like and are replacing it with their own guidelines, which in this case appear to be extremely broad and vague, and which are sure to be exploited by those seeking to game our generous refugee admissions program.”

While Vaughan admitted that there are a number of immigrants seeking protection who have been denied due to unintentional contact with terrorists, she sees the exemptions as likely another opportunity for people to bypass the system.

“If the recent past is any guide, those evaluating these cases will be ordered to ignore red flags in the applications, especially if the applicant is supported by one of the many advocacy groups that have the ear of senior DHS staff,” she explained.

“The administration already approves of the admission of gang members as asylees and criminals in the DACA program and grants of prosecutorial discretion, so I don’t expect them to be troubled by the admission of terrorists and garden variety fraudsters in our refugee program. This is how we end up with families like the Tsarnaev brothers [the Boston marathon bombers], who were originally admitted for political asylum.”

Just a reminder it was the federal refugee contractors complaining to a Senate hearing in January, here, that refugees were being held up for admission because they gave a “sandwich to a terrorist” (one of the US’s favored terrorists in Syria), that got this done! One group testifying was the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which said that it wants 15,000 Syrians admitted ASAP!

Catholic Patriarch: Don’t move all Christians out of Syria to the West!

01/29/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham
http://clericalwhispers.blogspot.com/2013/09/melkite-leader-says-attacks-on-syria.html

Expressed misgivings about refugee resettlement of Christians from throughout the Middle East to the West.

From Catholic Culture:

Syria’s leading Catholic prelate has voiced misgivings about refugee programs that are helping Christian families from Syria resettle in the West, saying that it is better if they remain in the Middle East.

Melkite Catholic Patriarch Gregory III Laham, who doubles as president of the Syrian bishops’ conference, said that the flight of Syrian refugees threatens to aggravate the overall exodus of Christians from the Middle East. “The danger is that if they leave the Middle East, they will never go back,” he said.

The Melkite Patriarch said that he could readily sympathize with the Christians who choose to leave the region. “Of course, we cannot decide for ourselves what response our people should make,” he acknowledged, adding that “the suffering is great.”

However, Patriarch Gregory suggested that aid programs should concentrate on helping people to remain near their homes. “It is better to help the people within the country or the region, and not invite them to go outside,” he said. “There is more that can be done locally,” he said.

Agreed! But, unfortunately then the US refugee resettlement contractors who are being paid by the head and doing the UN’s business will be happy to bring more Muslims to America and that includes among them the US Conference of Catholic Bishops!

Addendum: Check out this useful world map of countries where Christians are being persecuted.

Congress throws more money at Refugee Resettlement program

01/25/2014 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars!

Sure enough, the whining has paid off for the resettlement contractors, Congress is going to send more of your money their way! The excuse this time is that the poor contractors now have 26,000 illegal alien kids to care for—the unaccompanied minors we have been hearing about.

Make no mistake, this is not money going to the “refugees” this is money to keep the small and large contractor fiefdoms going—for staff, for offices, for travel, for lobbying even! There is one bright spot in this article—a Duke University professor, who works with refugees, is calling these numbers into question!

From the Duke Chronicle. Hat tip: Joanne:

Duke professor Suzanne Shanahan: “…the math is extremely wrong.”

Despite budget increases, experts fear for the future of refugee services.

Congress has largely increased funding for the Office of Refugee Resettlement to $1.489 billion from last year’s $1.12 billion, said Jen Smyers, associate director for immigration and refugee policy at Church World Service—a group that works with refugees in Durham and across the country. ORR estimated it would need $1.6 billion to serve all the populations in its care this year—a half billion increase from last year’s budget—and is looking for ways to meet the more than $100 million shortfall, Smyers added.

“We never thought [the funding] was going to get cut from last year’s level,” Smyers said. “Our fear was that they would not get anywhere near [ORR’s] needs. Due to some really great advocacy and last minute phone calls, we were able to get the number to $1.489 billion, which is a substantial increase, but there still is a gap between that number and the number ORR projected.”

Projected costs for this fiscal year increased by nearly half a billion dollars to cover an estimated 26,000 unaccompanied alien children coming to the United States from Mexico and Central America this year, Smyers said. This is an increase of approximately 10,000 unaccompanied children from the number of children in the 2012 fiscal year.

Suzanne Shanahan speaks up!

Suzanne Shanahan, associate director of ethics at the Kenan Institute and associate research professor in sociology, was critical of the calculations used to reach the increase in ORR’s budget requirements. She said that taking care of 10,000 extra children should not require a 30 percent increase in funds.

“The U.S. resettles 60,000 refugees a year, and the 60,000 refugees cost $1.12 billion [last year],” Shanahan said. “To say that a half billion dollars is what it takes to increase that by 10,000, the math is extremely wrong.”

With regard to the $100 million shortfall, Shanahan said this is only between a 6 and 7 percent total shortfall, which is not “extraordinary.”

“Even if refugees had to bear the entire cost of this, it’s not clear that [the burden] would be that dramatic,” Shanahan said.

It is unclear how the shortfall will affect refugees. Smyers said Congress appropriates an agency to their funds, and the agency decides how those funds are used. Currently, the ORR provides refugees with eight months of assistance. If, however, the shortfall cannot be remedied, the ORR may reduce the duration of assistance they are able to provide. ORR will likely prioritize unaccompanied children over longer-term refugee assistance.

The article goes on to discuss how surprising it is that refugee allocations should be increased in light of the fact that refugees have little clout in Congress. Refugees may not, but you can be absolutely sure the contractors, including the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, have a huge amount of clout on The Hill! Not to mention the hard Left open-borders lobby (which overlaps with the contractors).

By the way, the USCCB and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services have federal contracts to take care of the illegal alien kids (dreamers or schemers?).

See my previous post—if we can’t afford them why bring so many refugees?