Tag: USCRI

No one to blame but themselves for “job jeopardy” as refugee numbers drop

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Why?

Because the refugee agencies have failed over the years to raise private money for their ‘charitable’ good works (to tide them over) and have become completely dependent on you—the US taxpayers—to pay for their ‘humanitarian’ hobby.

Scratching your head and wondering why these non-profits (during this slowdown) can’t just take better care of (and give their love to) the refugees they have resettled over the previous years?

Margaret O'Sullivan
Margaret O’Sullivan is waiting to see how this is going to go! http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs166/1102467260055/archive/1115993366111.html

Then you need to know that federal dollars flow to these quasi-government ‘non-profits’ on a per refugee head basis.  The love stops when the money does!

No refugees=no payola. You might even liken it to a ponzi-scheme.

If there was so much public support for refugee resettlement, why couldn’t ‘charitable’ organizations like those whining in Philly have done all the normal activities that legitimate non-profits do to raise PRIVATE money—hold fundraising events, galas, bake sales, telethons, solicit corporate donations, etc.?

The answer is that it became too damn easy to dip into taxpayers’ wallets….

(And evidently the general public isn’t that interested in supporting this type of charity!)

Now we see headlines like this one at the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Trump’s travel-ban casualties: Laid-off refugee workers

philly loves refugees

Here are a few snips of the story meant to make it look like Trump is the meany while no mention about how groups like these are funded:

President Trump’s travel ban stalled the hopes of thousands of refugees overseas, and now it’s taking something crucial from workers who help the world’s most vulnerable people.

Their jobs.

Resettlement agencies in the Philadelphia region have laid off staff and left positions empty as the flow of refugees slows to a trickle. One organization cut half of its specialized staff, and another has asked senior employees to take unpaid time off.

“It’s a tortuous situation,” said Margaret O’Sullivan, executive director of the Nationalities Service Center in Philadelphia. “We’re all waiting to see which way this is going to go.”

Ms. O’Sullivan (Nationalities Service Center)*** is referring to the decision expected at any time now from the Trump Administration about how many impoverished refugees (aka paying clients) the US will ‘welcome’ to American towns and cities beginning October 1.  We have been advocating suspending the program, see here.

Job jeopardy:

“We’re struggling,” said Peter Gottemoller, director of Pennsylvania refugee programs for Bethany Christian Services.

Bethany has laid off more than half of its 20-person resettlement staff in offices in Allentown and Lancaster and in Montgomery County, “and there probably will be other layoffs coming down,” he said, “because we’re not going to get in the expected number of folks.” [And, the reporter must never have asked, so what is the connection, can’t you keep helping those already here?—ed]

More here.

*** Nationalities Service Center is an USCRI affiliate. A recent Form 990 shows that $2.9 million of their total gifts/grants of $3.7 million came from the government (you).

Below are the nine major contractors that are in most cases completely dependent on your tax dollars.

USCRI is approximately 98% funded by you (from the US Treasury).

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/Leftwing activists/lobbyists from the process.

Refugee resettlement is driven by a desire for cheap compliant labor, not humanitarianism

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

“….these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say ‘yes’ when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival.”

(Lavinia Limon, CEO USCRI)

 

Ten years ago, when I first started writing this blog, NO ONE ever said a word publicly about refugee admissions being desirable for big business, especially for BIG MEAT, so it is gratifying to see stories like this one at the LA Times (even if it’s spun to sound like a good thing for the struggling refugees) that tells us the truth.

(See Bloomberg earlier, here. And, the NYT here.)

It is past time for the truth!

If we need laborers willing to work cheap, just say so!

I want to say to the refugee resettlement contractors—cut the c***! Stop propagandizing that refugees, like these Muslims in the story, are here out of the goodness of your hearts (and America’s heart!).

This is about money and the reason that there is no real effort by the Republican establishment to reform the US Refugee Admissions Program is because BIG MEAT (BIG CHICKEN AND TURKEY TOO!) is lobbying and surely contributing to the campaign coffers of RINOs (and Democrats!).

It is also about reliable Democrat (Union!) voters.

An aside: I wish him only the best, but surely you noticed that one of those injured on the baseball field that day with Rep. Steve Scalise was a lobbyist for Tyson Foods (huge consumer of refugee labor).  Do average Americans who are concerned about disruption to their hometowns and their security, and taxpayers concerned about the US Treasury have that kind of access to members of Congress—NO!

Here is the LA Times (hat tip: Richard @highblueridge):

Al Souki [Syrian refugee star of the story makes $10.50 and hour—ed] needs the work—and employers in the meatpacking industry say they need workers like him. Refugees have increasingly become vital workers in an industry with high turnover. And the growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere have readily supplied them in places like the Central Valley. [So for those of you wondering if we are purposefully creating refugees through our aggressive foreign policy, maybe so!—ed]

Tom Super, a VP at the National Chicken Council: refugees a big part of our workforce for decades.

The refugee and immigrant populations ”certainly have been a significant part, an integral part of our workforce for decades,” said Tom Super, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council.

It’s difficult to know exactly how many refugees work in this occupation but roughly one-third of workers in the industry in 2010 were foreign-born, according to a peer-reviewed article in Choices, a publication of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Assn., a nonprofit that serves those who work in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics.

Mark Lauritsen, director of the food-processing division at the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, estimates that nationwide tens of thousands of refugees are part of the roughly 250,000 unionized meat and poultry plant workers.

Holy cow! Here we have the International Rescue Committee (one of nine federally funded NGOs***) admitting they are finding laborers for a chicken plant.

In 2010, Foster Farms in Turlock began hiring refugees placed by the International Rescue Committee, a refugee resettlement agency, said Christine Lemonda, deputy director of the IRC’s Northern California offices. Since then, the agency has placed more than 150 refugees at the poultry plant. In the last six months, 15 have been hired—an uptick—at Foster Farms, Lemonda said.

[….]

Immigrants have long been integral to the meatpacking industry, but refugees surfaced as a key labor force starting in 2006, according to experts who study the phenomenon.

Queen of Refugee labor procurement, Lavinia Limon of USCRI (98% taxpayer funded!), isn’t exactly telling the full story. Bush might have sped things up, but it was Bill Clinton (she was Bill’s director of ORR) who latched on to the concept of refugees for meat companies when he admitted tens of thousands of Bosnians for his buddies in the meat industry in Iowa. See here: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2008/05/17/bosnians-iowa-meatpackers-and-more/

That year the George W. Bush administration directed immigration enforcement agents to raid meat processing plants in six states. Operation Wagon Train—the largest single work-enforcement action in U.S. history—led to the arrest of an estimated 1,300 people working in the country illegally.

Though it did not stop the industry from completely cutting off the hiring of unauthorized workers, the raids had a chilling effect.

The growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere provided a refugee population from which to fill the labor vacuum, said Lavinia Limon, chief executive officer and president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a resettlement organization.

“What the meatpacking industry knows is that these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say ‘yes’ when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival,” Limon said.”It works really well for employers.”

[….]

The meatpacking industry has become so reliant on refugees that the North American Meat Institute, an industry lobby group, released a statement stating their concerns after President Trump issued an executive action restricting citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees from entry into the United States. [If Trump, the businessman, squishes-out on the refugee issue, you know that globalists wanting the free flow of cheap labor got to him!—ed]

And, here (below) we have an answer to a question I have had for a long time—Do resettlement contractors have formal relationships with BIG MEAT and BIG CHICKEN?  Will the IRC make money supplying the slave refugee laborers? (BTW, we know  the meat industry paid great wages decades ago before they found the cheap immigrant labor!)

There is no formal arrangement between IRC and Foster Farms, but that may change soon.

The resettlement agency and Foster Farms are looking at possibly extending their relationship and formalizing a partnership in the next few months, Foster Farms spokesman Ira Brill said. He declined to talk more about the issue.

Continue here, there is much more!

Again, if we want to debate low-skilled labor needs, let’s do it, and cut the ‘humanitarian’ sob stories.

I have a huge archive on ‘meatpackers’ changing America, click here, and last summer I traveled over 6,000 miles around America to see some of those changed towns.

 

***The Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/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.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again!

These federal contractors act as employment agencies for big companies in need of low-skilled workers and that is why the Republican establishment is loathe to abolish or reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/globalist head hunters from the process.

Tesla in the news: is Elon Musk looking for refugee laborers?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Globalists love refugees!

Every time I see news about Tesla’s new cars, I am reminded of the R & P Abstract for FY16 for Reno, Nevada where refugee contractor, USCRI, cited Elon Musk’s nearby soon-to-be-built battery factory as a source of employment for refugees to be placed in their new resettlement site—Reno.

Wearing his white hat of humanitarianism, or fearing loss of workers? Musk not happy with Trump EO on refugees: https://www.theverge.com/2017/1/28/14427360/elon-musk-trump-immigration-executive-order

I told you about that abstract here.  This is the segment where the refugee resettlement contractor (one of nine***) assures the US State Department that there are work opportunities for refugees including at the new “Gigafactory” Musk was building on the desert nearby.

Employment Services:

The Reno-Sparks economy is well known for its hospitality and leisure sector, with seven large casino-hotels employing 9,500-13,000 people. It is also home to the University of Nevada, the single largest employer in the county (after the school district), employing over 4,500 Full Time Equivalents (FTEs). The Truckee Meadows Community College also employs 1,250 educators and staff. Two major hospitals (Renown and St Mary’s) and other large healthcare providers in the areas employ over 3,500 healthcare professionals, technicians, and staff. The location – four hours by highway to San Francisco, and seven hours to Salt Lake City – is also logistics hub, hosting many warehousing and fulfillment establishments including UPS (1,000 employees), and Amazon.com (650 employees). Tesla is slated to open its “Gigafactory” outside of Sparks in 2017. By 2020, the Gigafactory will be at full capacity, employing 6,500 FTEs and producing more lithium ion batteries annually (for electric cars, for example) than were produced worldwide in 2013.

Here is a very cool website showing the construction of the monster Gigafactory showing its speedy construction from June 2016 to July 2017.  It reminds us of the speed with which the Chobani Yogurt plant was built in Idaho that is now a consumer of refugee labor. (Investigative reporter alert!  There is a story in Nevada beyond the refugee aspect!)

Frankly, hiring refugees is a great business model. First, salaries can be kept low because refugee families are subsidized by US taxpayers (housing, food stamps, medicaid) and refugees can hardly complain because they are captive workers who can’t easily go home or easily move elsewhere (Somalis are the exception).

 

http://insideevs.com/teslas-gigafactory-progress-1500-batteries/

 

Then here is a news account from the Record-Courier about refugees arriving in the Reno area citing FedEx, Costco and Tesla among the companies ‘helping’ refugees.

For new readers…..

***The Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/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.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again!

These federal contractors act as employment agencies for big companies in need of low-skilled workers and that is why the Republican establishment is loathe to abolish or reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/globalist head hunters from the process.

 

 

Winooski, Vermont: Somali boy drowns, police criticized for poor communication with family

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The refugee family had been in the US for a  year, but apparently still had poor English language skills.

I’m posting this story just so readers in present and future ‘welcoming’ towns in America know what they have to get ready for—the cost of interpretation services.

And, I think this is being set up as a possible lawsuit against a police department for failing to provide proper language translation in an emergency.

I’ve heard about these costly services that local taxpayers must pay for, but hadn’t seen any discussion on how the system works.

A Clinton-era Executive Order requires interpretation services be supplied by local and state governments in all sorts of situations—legal, medical, criminal—involving, as they call them in this story, New Americans. I wonder for how many years are taxpayers on the hook for such services for individual refugees (forever?).

From the Burlington Free Press:

When rescuers converged on the banks of the Winooski River on July 11 to search for Ali Muhina, they faced darkness, racing waters and a language barrier in their efforts to find the missing boy, believed to have fallen into the river.

The dead boy’s father (right) talks to the media. See video: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/news/2017/07/25/interpretation-challenge-small-city/475206001/

Later that night, after the search had been halted until morning, Police Chief Rick Hebert would tell reporters that the language barrier had caused some issues. The next morning, friends and relatives of Ali told reporters that the family had struggled to understand police procedures and ask questions. A relative told reporters the family speaks Swahili.

Ali’s family originated from Somalia, though the boy was born in a refugee camp in Kenya. They had lived in the United States for a year when tragedy struck.

A police translator during the initial hours of the search did not speak Swahili, but instead spoke an African language which Ali’s father could understand but not speak himself, according to Mohamed Noor, who identified himself as a relative of the Muhinas.

The Winooski Police Department has the use of “Enabling Language Services Anywhere” devices. The device is a small box that can be worn on an officer’s body. When an officer pushes the button, he’s automatically connected to an interpretation center open 24 hours a day seven days a week.

The officer is connected with a translator in one of over 180 languages, who can interpret remotely. If the officer doesn’t know the language being spoken, a linguist can come on the line to help identify it, according to RLL Mobile Interpretation’s website.

[….]

When the search resumed on July 12, representatives from organizations like the Association of Africans Living in Vermont and the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program were at the riverbank to support the family. [The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program is a subcontractor to primary contractor*** USCRI and is the organization behind all the controversy about starting a program in Rutland.—ed]

The day after Ali’s body had been recovered, Hebert acknowledged that “it has been a real challenge to engage our new Americans in meaningful relationship building,” and he said he would welcome any ideas on how to improve.

More here.

Are you paying attention Rutland!

Someone with some time should look into this group ‘Africans Living in Vermont‘ (see here where one of their employees was accused of embezzling).

For new readers, type the name of your state in my search window.  Here you can see all of our previous posts on Vermont.

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

Their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US. Here they will act as advocates for justice for the refugees they placed in your towns while you pay their salaries.

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

 

 

Refugee contractors increasingly admitting they can't survive without your money

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….your tax dollars that is. 
They can’t stay afloat on private charitable giving which says to me that there aren’t enough citizens willing to give their OWN money, or wealthy donors, who want more refugees in America!

“When you take out the underpinning that is the federal government support . . . the program is hamstrung.”

Angela Bovill

Here is the story from the Boston Globe yesterday!
It has been like pulling teeth over the years to get the contractors*** to admit that they are largely funded out of the federal, and sometimes state treasuries.  We should thank Donald Trump’s slowdown for forcing them to admit this. (They have had years slower than 50,000, but this year they can blame it on Trump!)

From story entitled:

As refugee arrivals dwindle, resettlement agencies face cuts

Here are a few snips from further down in the  piece:

The organizations receive an initial sum of $950 per refugee from the federal government to support operations, plus grants to finance specific services. [Actually some contractors keep more than $950. But rarely will you see mention of the additional grants!–ed]

Angela Bovill of Ascentria (formerly Lutheran Social Services New England). Don’t ask me why some LSS branches have changed their names, dumping the word Lutheran, in recent years.

Directors across the state said that this funding is critical to sustaining their programs.

“Private support does not make up for federal support,” said Angela Bovill, Ascentria Care Alliance’s chief executive. “When you take out the underpinning that is the federal government support . . . the program is hamstrung.”

With private dollars unable to fill budget holes, some directors have been left with no choice but to lay off staff, they said.

Government funds make up three-fourths of the International Institute of New England’s $1.27 million resettlement budget, and CEO Jeffrey Thielman said he has cut at least four full-time positions to offset a 21 percent reduction in funding.

Ascentria, which receives all of its core resettlement budget from the government, eliminated 17 positions in Massachusetts after a $611,000 shortfall.

More here.
The International Institute of New England is an USCRI subcontractor and Ascentria is a Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services sub office.

In 2013, Ms. Bovill made the astounding admission that refugee resettlement is a business! See here.

Hey, at least she is honest!—a federally-funded business (whatever that is!).
Did you know that I have an entire category called “Taxpayer goodies?” I just checked and see this will be post number 1,488 in the category!
***Federal contractors/middlemen/lobbyists/community organizers paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities.
Because their income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, the only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove the contractors from the process. I have ideas on how to do that, but no one in Congress every asks!