Federal refugee resettlement contractors blast Trump for ending 'temporary' status for Salvadorans

01/10/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Temporary Protected Status (legal!) program is designed to give a break (usually 18 months) for nationals, from another country who are already in the US when the natural disaster or civil war happens, to stay here until the country is on its feet again.
In March, Salvadorans (and El Salvador), will have had a 17 YEAR break.
For 17 years hundreds of thousands have had time to produce nearly 200,000 more children, get jobs, drivers licenses (and I will bet vote!). See USCIS on TPS for El Salvador here.
Calling the program ‘temporary’ is a joke.
It has to end sometime and the Trump Administration has decided that September 2019 is it!
The Leftwing Open Borders activists, including obviously refugee resettlement contractors***, have been working toward amnesty for a decade or more and the Salvadorans would have been a recipient of such an amnesty.

Matthew Soerens of World Relief says El Salvador will be destabilized when they lose all of those US dollars Salvadorans send home—US dollars that leave the US economy!

In the Gang of Eight bill they would have been essentially hired by the feds to do for the newly amnestied what they do for refugees—get them signed up for their services (aka welfare). And, it would have expanded their Left-leaning political power through their immigrant dependents.
So it is no surprise to see them complaining now!
Here is the Christian Post reporting on our old pals:

Christian leaders and organizations are speaking out against the Trump administration move on Monday to terminate protected status for thousands of El-Salvadoran immigrants who have been allowed to live and work in the United States for over a decade. [For over a decade, you mean nearly two decades!—ed]

Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday made a decision to terminate “Temporary Protected Status” that has allowed El-Salvadoran immigrants to legally work and live in the U.S. since two earthquakes struck the Central American country in 2001. The move could affect up to nearly 200,000 people and it’s a move that prominent evangelical leaders pressured the Trump administration not to make.

The administration claims the decision, which takes effect in September 2019 after an 18-month transition period, was made after an “inter-agency consultation process” determined that “the original conditions caused by the 2001 earthquakes no longer exist.” Yet, human rights advocates are warning that El Salvador is not economically able to sustain a massive return.

“But the reality is that El Salvador is among most violent countries in the world & among poorest in Western Hemisphere,” Matthew Soerens, the director of church mobilization for the evangelical refugee resettlement organization World Relief, tweeted on Monday. “It will be significantly destabilized by sudden insertion of so many returnees & by sudden halt of remittance money sent home by workers in US.”

So how long must we be blackmailed by threats of a destablized El Salvador? How long must we watch US dollars leave the US economy in the form of remittances? And why should refugee contractor World Relief care? These are NOT refugees.
But, if they do care so much, World Relief (and the US Bishops) could do the really brave thing and instead of living in comfort/collecting handsome salaries and bullying Americans into ‘welcoming’ the stranger, go to El Salvador and help the people where they live!

And, of course the US Bishops whine! (See that they got $95 million from taxpayers in 2016 for their Christian charity for migrants, here.)

“The decision to terminate TPS for El Salvador is heartbreaking. As detailed in our recent delegation trip report to the region, El Salvador is currently not in a position to adequately handle the return of the roughly 200,000 Salvadoran TPS recipients,” Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ committee on migration, said in a statement, adding that the decision will “fragment American families.

Fragment American families! The families could go together to their homeland!
For my Evangelical readers, you may not know that there is a Leftwing Open Borders Evangelical consortium. You need to do a little research to see if your church is involved.

The Evangelical Immigration Table, a coalition evangelical organizations that represent millions of believers across multiple denominations, also pressured the Trump administration to extend the TPS program for El Salvador until a permanent legislative fix can be enacted through Congress.

More here.
***These are the nine federal contractors who are paid by you to place refugees in your towns. If there were millions given amnesty in the coming years those groups listed below would be hired by the feds to help them get settled and get their taxpayer-supplied stuff.

There can be no immigration reform as long as taxpayers finance these political agitation groups masquerading as humanitarian charities:

US Catholic Bishops received over $95 million from US taxpayers in 2016 for refugee/migrant care

01/07/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we reported on the Bishop’s 2014 dollars received from the US Treasury, see here.
USCCB
Now, thanks to reader Joanne (who did some digging!) we see that the USCCB is approaching $100 million federal dollars for their ‘charitable good works’ on behalf of immigrants of all stripes.
Unfortunately, this data doesn’t show us the percentage of private money raised for their migration program, but I suspect it isn’t much more than 3% of their overall migration budget as it was in 2014.
Buried in the USCCB Financial Statement and audit reports, here:

USCCB 2016 funds

See my archive on the USCCB by clicking here.
My goal is to get the Bishops to admit in media reports that they are being paid handsomely for their good works!
If you are Catholic and looking for something to do, ask your local priest if he is aware of all these millions of federal dollars, especially this week—National Migration Week—when you are made to feel guilty for not being thrilled about the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program!
For new readers the USCCB is one of the nine federal contractors responsible for placing refugees into your home towns. In fact, the Bishops and their extension—Catholic Charities—place the largest number of any of the nine.

Catholics get ready for National Migration Week launch tomorrow….

01/06/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..where you will be made to feel guilty if you aren’t interested in the message about helping the (foreign) stranger when you see poverty and homelessness all around you!

I don’t really want to write about this again, but awhile back I said that every time I saw a Catholic publication promoting propaganda about their charitable work for refugees and immigrants without mentioning that they are paid MILLIONS of taxpayer dollars for their ‘religious’ good works, I would write about it.
***Update*** Worse than we even thought! Reader finds 2016 funding. Read all about it here.
This is from a South Jersey Catholic publication. Not a word about the fact that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (as one of nine federally funded resettlement contractors***) is paid millions annually from the US Treasury.

For nearly 50 years, the Catholic Church has celebrated National Migration Week, which kicks off this weekend, Jan. 7. This year’s purpose takes on a special significance in light of Pope Francis launching the two-year Share the Journey campaign in September 2017.

Share the Journey is a worldwide effort to build understanding and support within local communities for immigrants and refugees who have come to new lands to rebuild their lives. The campaign is sponsored globally by Caritas Internationalis and in the United States by Catholic Charities USA, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Catholic Relief Services.

[….]

“National Migration Week, and the Share the Journey campaign in particular, are invitations to people of all ages to engage with migrants in a meaningful way, and to be warm and welcoming of these newcomers,” noted Patrick Barry, director of Refugee and Immigration Services at Catholic Charities, whose mother was a Cambodian refugee who fled the Khmer Rouge regime in the 1980s.

“It’s been amazing to see how many groups, nonprofits and institutions have engaged in this campaign and demonstrated their support,” he said.

[….]

“As Catholics, we believe in the human dignity of all people. And so we are called to stand with refugees and immigrants as our brothers and sisters,” said Kevin Hickey, executive director of Catholic Charities, Diocese of Camden, and Catholic Charities USA Trustee.

And so, why not stand for the human dignity of your fellow Americans (first!) who are struggling with hunger and homelessness?
The answer: there is no money in it!

The USCCB’s Migration Fund is 97% funded by you, the taxpayer.

See my most recent write-up on funding for contractors where I report on the USCCB’s 2014 annual report. After I found this one and first reported on it a few years ago, I have never found a more up-to-date financial statement for their migration fund. I wonder why!

screenshot-671 (1) — Federal grants and the travel loan collection fees are your money! http://www.usccb.org/about/migration-and-refugee-services/upload/2014-MRS-Annual-Report.pdf

I look forward to the day when a Catholic publication reports on the above facts!
Catholic parishioners might be perfectly fine with taking that much federal money, so why are the Bishops afraid of telling them?
*** The contractors. The USCCB resettles the most refugees of the nine that monopolize all resettlement in the US.

Heritage Foundation leaves out one important consideration in its ‘plan’ for reforming refugee program—you!

11/25/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

First, you need to know that the Heritage Foundation, a huge ‘conservative’ think tank in Washington, hasn’t paid one lick of attention to the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) until this year, until Trump entered the White House.

***Update*** If you commented at the Heritage site linked below, and after opening the link in a different browser, no longer see your comment, please let me know! Write to refugeewatcher@gmail.com (or comment to this post) and tell me. Something is very fishy because I can’t see some of your comments and just now my comment from earlier today had disappeared. They aren’t ‘shadow banning’ are they?

Update November 26th: We will be eager to hear tomorrow why the Heritage Foundation has not publicly posted many comments. See here. Missing comments found and they are doozies! Click here.

Now they are tooting their horn because they got a meeting with retired Admiral Garry Hall in the White House to promote their version of reform.

But, what is absent from their ‘study’ and report entitled: ‘The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program: A Roadmap for Reform,’ is the cost shifting of the USRAP to state taxpayers, the cultural and economic impact on communities, refugee crime, and the secrecy by which the feds and nine contractors (paid almost exclusively with taxpayer dollars)*** place refugees in American towns and cities.

They do give a little lip service to the idea that refugees must assimilate. Oh, pray tell, how are you going to force certain ‘religious’ refugees to assimilate while the whole resettlement effort is being done by contractors who have no interest in teaching refugees to assimilate? (They won’t even use the word ‘assimilate!’)

In short, the focus of their work is Washington-centric and how refugee resettlement is somehow mostly an issue of foreign policy to advance US interests!

What about US citizens’ interests!

The authors clearly have no idea what is going on outside the DC bubble.

Here are the three takeaways from their work product:

Screenshot (53) — Do you see anything here about States Rights and the feds shifting costs to states? Anything about the US Treasury heavily funding ‘religious’ NGOs which then operate in secrecy? Anything about the social and cultural impact roiling communities that are overloaded with refugees?

Here is a recent email from the ‘Johnny-come-lately‘ Heritage Foundation:

At Heritage, we bring the best and the brightest minds together to boldly address refugee policy.

Adm-Garry-E-Hall-200x300 — Before coming to the White House, Admiral Hall sat on a board at the US Conference of Catholic Bishops the largest of the nine federal contractors placing refugees in your towns (can’t make this up!) http://www.milarch.org/retired-navy-rear-admiral-garry-e-hall-appointed-to-national-review-board-of-the-u-s-conference-of-catholic-bishops/

This summer, Heritage experts Olivia Enos, David Inserra, and Joshua Meservey wrote a report titled “The U.S. Refugee Admissions Program: A Roadmap for Reform”.

Their report asserts that the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program should be used neither as a service to mass distribute global migration rights, nor to solve international conflict.

Rather, it should be reformed to assert American leadership, tangibly help partners and allies, and rescue some of the world’s most vulnerable people.

Last Thursday, they briefed Admiral Hall on their report at the National Security Council. He was very receptive and promised to pass it to the new Senior Adviser for Refugees [Who?—ed]

James Jay Carafano, the Vice President for the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign Policy and E. W. Richardson Fellow, said of their work:

“While others have obsessed about the numbers and bans, we have focused on substantive reforms to actually make the program better—reduce abuse, enhance security and promote assimilation. Our work has not gone unnoticed. I have gotten constructive feedback from NGOs on all sides of this issue.”

Plans to make their roadmap to reform a reality are in the works.

What do you think should be done about America’s refugee program?

Readers ask me all the time, what can I do? Do this!

Go here and tell Heritage what you think about ‘reforming’ the USRAP! Tell them what is happening in your towns!

Again, the authors clearly have no idea what is going on outside of the swamp.

(As of this writing there are 16 comments at the Heritage site.)

My previous reports on this Heritage project are here and here.

*** The nine federal contractors that secretly place refugees in hundreds of US towns and cities. The USCCB Migration Fund is 97% funded by the US Treasury. Does Admiral Hall know that? Is that OK with him?

US Catholic Bishops Thanksgiving message: we thank the US taxpayers for so generously supporting our good works

11/22/2017 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That headline is a joke of course!

As the Bishops gathered and gave “thanks for the gift and contributions of immigrants and refugees to our great nation,” not a peep was mentioned about the millions of tax payer dollars going to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops “Migration Fund” which allows them to demonstrate their humanity to man (well, to the foreign ones anyway).

Before you read the story, here again is a reminder of just one year of the income the Bishops received thanks to the generosity of US taxpayers.

I wrote this in July, here, summarizing the income that nine federal refugee contractors*** receive for their ‘charitable’ good works.

The Bishops Migration Fund was 97% taxpayer-funded according to a 2014 annual report for their Migration Fund and I doubt the percentage has changed much in recent years.

The Bishops don’t file a Form 990 and their operations are so vast, I could spend the whole day and still not sort it out. Also, maybe you can find one, but I have not found an annual report for their refugee program since I found this one for 2014.

So we will have to rely on it (again). Keep in mind these funds for their refugee resettlement program do not include millions that go directly from the feds to some individual Catholic Charities and Dioceses around the US. (If you are researching your local CC or Dioceses, you can often find good numbers at USASpending.gov)

Screenshot (671)_LI — Both the federal grants and the travel loan collections are your taxpayer dollars!

Now here is the news from Crux:

U.S. bishops release Thanksgiving message advocating for migrants and refugees

NEW YORK – The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has issued a special Thanksgiving message, offering a particular plea for the protection of migrants and refugee families.

Pope Francis Attends A Mass for The Opening Of The Synod — Worried look? As refugee admissions decline, so will their income! Cardinal Daniel DiNardo gets top USCCB job: http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2016/11/15/u-s-catholic-bishops-elect-texas-cardinal-to-top-post/

In a statement released on Monday, Cardinal Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston and president of the USCCB, expressed solidarity with DACA recipients, beneficiaries of Temporary Protected Status, and other refugees attempting to escape persecution or danger in their home countries. [We pay them millions for their advocacy!—ed]

DiNardo cited last week’s fall assembly of U.S. bishops in Baltimore and said the conference was “attentive in a special way to those who are often excluded from this great abundance-the poor, the sick, the addicted, the unborn, the unemployed, and especially migrants and refugees.

“My brothers expressed a shared and ever-greater sense of alarm-and urgency to act-in the face of policies that seemed unthinkable only a short time ago,” said DiNardo.

[….]

DiNardo also used his Thanksgiving message to advocate for comprehensive immigration reform, a long-time policy goal of the USCCB. [If the Senate Gang of Eight bill had been signed in to law, the refugee contractors would have gotten an expanded role and more taxpayer money to sign the newly amnestied up for their government services, just as they do now for refugees—ed]

“This year, I give thanks for the gift and contributions of immigrants and refugees to our great nation. I also pray that next year, families now under threat will not be broken and dispersed, but instead will be united in joy around their tables, giving thanks for all the blessings our nation has to offer,” he concluded.

(Including the blessings of an over-flowing federal treasury that sends us millions annually!)

More here.

I’m going to continue talking about this until the Bishops tell Americans the truth about their income! Why is that so hard?

***These are the nine federal refugee contractors paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities.