Refugee Resettlement Contractors Stay in the Black With Lucrative Federal Grants

In case you are wondering how the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors stay afloat through lean times—when the President cuts the flow of new refugees (paying clients!) coming into the country—here is one example.

Check out this list of new federal grant recipients employed by the feds to teach immigrants how to pass the naturalization test!

Over $10 million out the door to the likes of Catholic Charities, HIAS, Lutheran Social Services and others whose federal grants for new refugees had slowed in recent years. 

Gotta get all those new voters signed up pronto!  (Hat tip: Steven)

USCIS Awards FY 2019 Citizenship and Assimilation Grants

Nearly $10 Million Will Expand Citizenship Preparation Services in 24 States

On September 26, 2019, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the award of nearly $10 million in grants to 41 organizations that prepare lawful permanent residents (LPRs) for naturalization. The grants also aim to promote prospective citizens’ assimilation into American civic life by funding educational programs designed to increase their knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics. Located in 24 states, these organizations will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for LPRs through September 2021.

I can see giving grants to community colleges, school systems, libraries, but refugee agencies, SEIU and something called Progreso Latino and Women for Afghan Women?

Could their students be getting a little indoctrination by progressive Dems along with their English language and civic lessons?

And, why don’t we see any politically conservative non-profits getting some of this grant money?

(Groups highlighted in red are involved in refugee resettlement)

1199SEIU League Training and Upgrading Fund New York, NY $250,000

Access California Services Anaheim, CA $250,000

Asian Counseling and Referral Service Seattle, WA $250,000

Baker Ripley Houston, TX $250,000

BPSOS Center for Community Advancement Westminster,CA $250,000

Burmese American Community Institute, Inc. Indianapolis, IN $225,000

Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans New Orleans, LA $225,000

Catholic Charities of Northeast Kansas, Inc.Overland Park, KS $250,000

Catholic Charities of Northern Nevada Reno, NV $250,000

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Santa Rosa Santa Rosa, CA $237,500

Catholic Charities, Diocese of Fort Worth, Inc.Fort Worth, TX $250,000

Church World Service, Inc.Durham, NC $237,500

Emerald Isle Immigration Center Woodside, NY $250,000

English Skills Learning Center Salt Lake City, UT $250,000

Fresno Unified School District Fresno, CA $250,000

Hartford Public Library Hartford, CT $225,000

HIAS and Council Migration Services of Philadelphia, Inc.Philadelphia, PA $250,000

Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota Saint Paul, MN $250,000

Instituto del Progreso Latino Chicago, IL $225,000

International Institute of New England, Inc.Boston, MA $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.San Diego, CA $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Baltimore, MD $250,000

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Turlock, CA $237,500

International Rescue Committee, Inc.Seattle, WA $250,000

Jewish Family & Vocational Service of Middlesex County, Inc. Milltown, NJ $250,000

Jewish Family Service of San Diego San Diego, CA $225,000

Jewish Family Services of Western Massachusetts, Inc.Springfield, MA $250,000

Kentucky Refugee Ministries, Inc.Louisville, KY $250,000

Literacy New Jersey Edison, NJ $250,000

Lutheran Community Services Northwest Portland, OR $250,000

Lutheran Social Services of Colorado Denver, CO $250,000

Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid Minneapolis, MN $237,500

Montgomery College Rockville, MD $250,000

Pars Equality Center Sherman Oaks, CA $225,000

Progreso Latino, Inc.Central Falls, RI $250,000

School Board of Miami-Dade, FLMiami, FL $225,000

Shorefront YM-YWHA of Brighton-Manhattan Beach, Inc.Brooklyn, NY $250,000

Skyline Literacy Harrisonburg, VA $250,000

The International Institute of Metropolitan St. Louis St. Louis, MO $225,000

United Methodist Cooperative Ministries/Suncoast, Inc.Largo, FL $237,500

Women for Afghan Women, Inc.Fresh Meadows, NY $250,000

I’ve done it over the years, but maybe it is time to revisit all of the grants available to ‘non-profit’ groups that are very much involved in political organizing particularly against this President.

Was there fraud in the huge resettlement of Burmese 'refugees' to the US?

They must have found something at the USCIS or a thousand Burmese living in the US right now wouldn’t have gotten a letter to report to a USCIS office.
Was there fraud in transit country, Malaysia???
(Checking Wrapsnet I see that since FY06 we have admitted a whopping 167,583 Burmese people and they were coming before 2006 and are still coming, see map below.)
Here is a short article at the Des Moines Register about the “summons” Burmese living in Iowa have received:

Dozens of refugees in Iowa received letters from immigration officials asking them to appear for an interview and provide information that validates their status.

The refugees are from the country formerly known as Burma, a group that has grown in the past five years to include more than 8,000 living in Iowa.

[….]

Abigail-150x150
Abigail Sui, program manager of Ethnic Minorities of Burma Advocacy and Resources in Des Moines.   http://www.embarciowa.org/

She [Abigail Sui] said at least 50 refugees in Iowa, all who came from Burma and to the U.S. through Malaysia, got the letter from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Department that requested the in-person interview. One letter required travel to Indianapolis, while a refugee from Indiana appeared at the USCIS offices in Des Moines for an interview Monday, according to EMBARC.

[….]

“A current USCIS investigation has raised concerns about identity and biographic information provided to USCIS in a number of cases involving Burmese refugees, including many who have resettled in the U.S.,” said Sharon Rummery, a USCIS public affairs officer based in San Francisco.

She said in an email that the USCIS sent 1,000 requests for interviews nationwide that “will help determine the refugee’s immigration status or eligibility for future immigration benefits.”

The interviews are voluntary, but Sui said that she thinks consequences are possible if the refugees do not go.

Already facing resettlement hardships, the refugees would have to fund a trip to the interviews and take time off work, said Sui. In addition, no interpreters would be made available.

Can you hear the immigration lawyer stampede now—no taxpayer-funded interpreters is a big no-no!  And, how dare the Trump Administration dig more deeply into the US Refugee Admissions Program.
More here.
Here is a map from the US State Department’s Refugee Processing Center showing where the 167,583 Burmese have been placed since FY06.  Obviously there is an error as there is no number on the dark blue Indiana.   Texas takes top honors.
 

Screenshot (219)
New readers may not know that Wyoming is the only state with no refugee program.

 
My archive on the Burmese may be found by clicking here.
Most of the Burmese are not Muslims but in the last few years, the US has begun admitting larger numbers of the so-called ‘Rohingya,’ Muslims from Burma and Bangladesh.

USCIS removes "nation of immigrants" from mission statement, Left goes nuts

“…..reveals the insidious racism harbored by those in this administration.”

(Eleanor Acer, director of refugee protection at Washington-based advocacy group Human Rights First)

Here is the story at Think Progress (consider the source):
 

Eleanor Acer cspan
They are one-trick ponies! It is “racist,” Trump is “racist” and you, dear readers, are “racists!”

 

In a move formalizing more than a year of hardline anti-immigration rhetoric from the White House, the agency responsible for overseeing both green cards and citizenship has wiped a key line framing the United States as a “nation of immigrants” from its mission statement.

In a letter sent Thursday, Lee Francis Cissna, the director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), told employees that the statement had been altered to “guide us in the years ahead.”

The original language:

“U.S.C.I.S. secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system,” read the agency’s original mission statement.

The new Trump Admin. language:

The new offering is notably altered: “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland and honoring our values.”

That new statement, Cissna said, “clearly defines the agency’s role in our country’s lawful immigration system and the commitment we have to the American people.”

In addition to the removal of the “nation of immigrants” phrase, the statement has also eliminated any reference to non-U.S. nationals as “customers” — a decision Cissna said served as “a reminder that we are always working for the American people.”

Did you know that some Native Americans and Blacks never did like the phrase—nation of immigrants—so they must be cheering this move!

The phrase “nation of immigrants” is not without controversy — many Native Americans have argued against the saying, as have Black Americans, arguing that the arrival of colonizers and slaves should not be conflated with immigration more broadly. But the phrase has become a rallying cry for many contemporary proponents of immigration, which helps to diversify the United States and keep the economy strong. Its removal formalizes an agenda long pursued by the Trump administration, which has made cracking down on immigration a key pillar of its tenure.

[….]

“Our nation is one built by immigrants—removing this language does nothing to change that fact, it only reveals the insidious racism harbored by those in this administration,” said Eleanor Acer, director of refugee protection at Washington-based advocacy group Human Rights First, in a statement.

More here.  You might find it heartening to read the list of all the “racist” things the White House has been doing!
And, I don’t want to get in to a big yak, but we haven’t been a nation of immigrants, in fact we took about a 40 year break until Senator Ted (don’t bring them to Hyannis) Kennedy pushed the 1965 Hart-Cellers Immigration Act that opened the present day flood gates.  Earlier waves of immigration were mostly from Europe (and there was no welfare system. They worked hard or went home). All that changed in 1965. 15 years later he pushed through the Refugee Act of 1980.
I always wondered if ol’ Teddy was a true believer, or did someone have a gun to his head?

Top USCIS refugee official leaving; more evidence admissions slowdown could continue

We reported here on January 1 that the Trump refugee numbers, at the present rate of arrival, would come in at half of the CEILING of 45,000 set for FY18.
By the way, George Bush had two years that saw refugee admissions in the 20,000 range.
Trump will set a record if he comes in below George W. Bush’s two lowest years of 27,070 (2002) and 28,117 (2003).
(Yesterday, Michael Leahy at Breitbart posted a more detailed look at the numbers so far.)

hans van de weerd bald
Hans Van de Weerd of the two hats (IRC and RCUSA) is the go-to-guy for media comments these days.  As you know RCUSA is the lobbying arm of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program. My question: is Hans still a Dutch citizen? Bio here:   http://www.phocuswrightconference.com/Whos-Coming/Speakers/2016/Hans-Van-de-Weerd

Here Reuters reports on the retirement of Barbara Strack (hat tip: Joanne):

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – One of the top U.S. government officials working on refugee issues announced her impending retirement on Tuesday, and refugee advocates expressed concern about the fate of the country’s resettlement program which faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration.

Barbara Strack, a career official and chief of the Refugee Affairs Division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not specify when she will leave her post, but USCIS spokesman R. Carter Langston said it would be in January.

[….]

“It’s something I’ve been planning towards for a long time, and it’s not driven by policy considerations,” Strack said. “I will deeply miss the colleagues and friendships that I‘m leaving behind, and the important mission of refugee resettlement. It’s been a privilege to be part of this community for the last 12 years, working to make the U.S. refugee resettlement program robust and secure.”

Advocates expressed concern at the timing of Strack’s retirement, saying it could further hamper U.S. refugee admissions. It was unclear immediately who would replace her.

[….]

The Refugee Affairs Division, which Strack oversees, includes dozens of officers charged with interviewing refugees abroad for resettlement in the United States.

[….]

Advocates for resettlement and some U.S. officials have expressed alarm at what they see as a slowdown in trips abroad known as circuit rides, in which USCIS officers interview refugees.

“The number of circuit rides has gone down drastically with currently only a few planned,” said Hans Van de Weerd, chair of Refugee Council USA***, a coalition of non-governmental groups working on refugee issues. “Many more will need to be scheduled soon to resettle 45,000 refugees and we don’t have any information about whether they will.”

More from Reuters here.
*** See my recent post on RCUSA the lobbying shop for the nine federal contractors which receive the vast majority of their funding from the US taxpayer. With the reduction in paying clients (aka refugees) entering the US, their budgets are taking huge hits.  Go here and see IRC salaries, spokesman Hans does not make the top tier.

“Assimilation” is in! “Integration” is out in Trump’s Washington

Here is a bit of good news from Washington.

I’ve told you a few times over the years about how the open borders left rejects the word and the process for immigrants to assimilate and instead has focused on integration for immigrants—most recently here (Sarsour says Muslims must not assimilate).

In Michael Patrick Leahy’s Breitbart story yesterday about this subtle, but important, use of words by the Trump Department of Homeland Security, we see one of the best descriptions of the difference between assimilation and integration described by a Trump critic.  Here it is and then I’ll give you the news:

Author Justin Gest tells us that going back to the idea of assimilation is not a good thing. Photo: https://wp.stolaf.edu/blog/lecture-to-examine-trump-and-the-white-working-class/

Justin Gest a professor at George Mason University told Newsweek (emphasis is mine):

“The history of the words assimilation and integration are not necessarily that different,” Gest says, but “through selective use, and adoption by different idealogues and commentators, they have developed divergent connotations.”

Integration implies a two-way process, whereby the immigrant adapts to their new environment, and those in the new environment attempt to facilitate the adaptation and co-evolve with immigrants themselves.”

“Assimilation has come to connote a one-way process, where there is a monolithic understanding—a static understanding— of what society is like, and that the immigrants hold all responsibility for adapting to it, and society is subject to no obligation to change to welcome or facilitate the arrival of newcomers.”

Now here is what Leahy is reporting about the change in focus at the Dept. of Homeland Security:

The Trump administration has changed the focus of a Department of Homeland Security immigrant citizenship training program managed by USCIS to “assimilation,” a significant shift from the Obama era focus on “integration.”

The change of focus was made official in the announcement on Tuesday that “U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) began accepting applications for two competitive funding opportunities under the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program.” (emphasis added)

“Both funding opportunities aim to prepare lawful permanent residents for naturalization and promote civic assimilation through increased knowledge of English, U.S. history, and civics. Through these two funding opportunities, USCIS will offer up to $10 million in competitive funding for citizenship preparation programs in communities across the country,” the announcement said.

The program, which began in 2009, President Obama’s first year in office, was previously called the “Citizenship and Integration Grant Program” (emphasis added) and “has awarded $63 million through 308 competitive grants to immigrant-serving organizations*** in 37 states and the District of Columbia. The program has helped more than 170,000 permanent residents prepare for citizenship.”

The name change appears to have taken place this month. A screenshot taken from the Internet Wayback Machine shows the word “integration” was used to describe the grant program as recently as July 3.

Continue reading here.

This is a very good sign that at least internally things are moving in the right direction inside the administration, but here comes my wet blanket question and comment!

Will the far left federal refugee resettlement contractors continue to receive some of the millions of grant dollars? Aren’t there local government agencies that could do a more balanced training program? And, who will be policing their training sessions to assure they are teaching the New Americans about the need to ASSIMILATE?

***Who are the “immigrant-serving organizations?”

Catholic Charities raking in federal bucks to give “free” workshops. This one, probably 2016, in New Bern, NC. LOL! How many of their “New Americans” then register as Republicans?

You guessed it! Some of our nine major refugee resettlement contractors and their subcontractors are getting some of that grant money.  You will see five of the nine represented in the FY2014 grantees list I posted here in 2015.

I’m sure you have been scratching your heads about how the contractors can survive on only a per head amount received for each refugee they resettle.  The answer is that they all get myriad federal grants for all sorts of things including training refugees for their citizenship tests.

For new readers:

The Federal contractors/middlemen/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities are below.  Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.

The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/propagandists/community organizers from the process.