How more of your money flows out of Washington to non-profit groups that ‘help’ immigrants and refugees

10/31/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The grant program is known as the ‘Ethnic Community Self-help Program’ run out of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (HHS).

At one point I followed their activities closely and began a file on it, see here, but too much breaking news pushed the subject to the back burner.

Money machine

First, as you know, nine federal resettlement contractors*** are hired by the US State Department to place refugees in your towns and cities. Their job is to help the refugees settle in and get them signed up for their ‘services.’

You also know that the nine are paid by the head to place those refugees, but in addition the Office of Refugee Resettlement doles out many millions more each year to non-profit groups including those nine in the form of discretionary grants.

But, what you might not know is that an entire cottage industry of non-profits have sprung up which get federal grants in most cases to benefit their specific ethnic group—Ethnic Community Based Organizations (ECBOs for short).

The grants are ostensibly to help the refugees integrate into a community, but one might wonder then why the funding is specific to groups that are maintaining their own cultural identity.

If such a helping hand is needed in certain cities, why isn’t the money given to local government agencies to help all ethnic groups, all races and all religions, instead of favoring one ethnic non-profit group over another? Seems to me that the present system creates division rather than integration.

Here is what ORR says about the grant program.

Pay attention to the list of what you are paying for—getting refugees their resources, building their community, getting them involved in local “civic participation” (aka voting!), and getting local citizens minds right about the immigrants’ presence in the community!

In other words, you are paying for ethnic non-profit groups to organize in your community. Remember ACORN? Well these are little ACORNs!

(Don’t you just love this deceptive language!)

The Ethnic Community Self-Help program supports ethnic community-based organizations in providing refugee populations with critical services to assist them in becoming integrated members of American society.

Program Description

The Ethnic Community Self-Help program provides assistance to refugee community-based organizations and other groups that:

Address community building
Facilitate cultural adjustment and integration
Deliver mutually supportive functions
Information exchange
Civic participation
Resource enhancement
Orientation and support to new and established refugees
Public education to the larger community

Ethnic Community Self-Help programs connect newly arrived refugees to community resources [aka welfare!—ed]. Ethnic Community Self-Help programs target all ORR populations, and all U.S.-based governmental and certified non-profit organizations are eligible to apply.

What is up with ORR that much (maybe all!) of their grant information is out of date!

Over the years, I’ve visited ORR and found lists of who was receiving grants and for how much, but that information is not available now.

Oh sure, you can get the old ECBO grants list. But those grants have expired. Check it out and see that they passed out nearly $4.5 million to a list of ECBOs around the country. Those grants expired in 2017.

So, maybe the Trump Administration has cut out the program?

The answer is NO!

Just this month the ORR put out a notice of two upcoming grants. One of those is for ECBOs. Although the money is less than in the past—$2 million instead of over $4 million—13 non-profit groups will rake in $100,000-$200,000 each.

Here is the information on the ECBO grant offering:

Screenshot (771)

An aside: For all of you who have ever tried to get a conservative non-profit group/Tea Party up and running you know that this is one heck of a lot of money. Of course, grants like this are not available to you!

When I couldn’t find an up-to-date list of grantees right now, I emailed ORR and was sent the list below. However, it is lacking in information—no grant amounts and no end date—so who knows if these little ACORNS are still enjoying your tax dollars.

Screenshot (769) — Your tax dollars went to grants ($100,000-$200,000 each) so they could get their ethnic group established, and for refugees to get their “resources” in your cities.

Just a reminder: When you see something here at RRW that you are concerned about, let the President know how you feel, here.

***Below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups, community organizers and lobbyists paid on our dime!

And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’

The number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees into your towns and cities and get them signed up for their services (aka welfare)! And, get them registered to vote eventually!

From my most recent accounting, here. However, please see that Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done an update of their income, as has James Simpson at the Capital Research Center!

Pennsylvania synagogue killer was angry about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society…

10/28/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….and he didn’t like Trump either.

Editor: First, let me be clear. Nothing in this post is meant in any way to suggest that we condone this horrific act of violence against innocent people. This was a vile act by someone whose hatred of Jews was so great that he had obviously abandoned all reason and we condemn it.

Here is Reuters:

UPDATE 1-Who is Robert Bowers, the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting suspect?

Two hours before a gunman burst into the Tree of Life synagogue and opened fire during a Shabbat religious service, Bowers posted on chat site Gab.com about the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), a non-profit that helps Jewish refugees relocate to the United States.

“HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can’t sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I’m going in,” wrote Bowers, a heavy-set, white male.

[….]

Bowers, who is a registered voter with “no affiliation” in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, took aim in one post at U.S. President Donald Trump, accusing him of being a “globalist” who did nothing to stop the “infestation” of the United States by Jews.

“For the record, I did not vote for him nor have I owned, worn or even touched a MAGA hat,” he wrote.

More here.

Just so you know, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (rebranded as HIAS a few years ago), resettles very few Jews. As a federal resettlement contractor, it resettles refugees assigned to it by the US State Department from all of the usual hot spots around the world.

Screenshot (765) — Charity Navigator reports that in 2016, HIAS was 58.5% funded by government grants mostly to resettle refugees. https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3820

Curious to see how many Jewish people have been admitted to the US as refugees over the last ten years, I checked Wrapsnet.

In ten years the US admitted a total of 635,173 refugees representing a vast array of religions from all over the world.

Of that number only 1,893 (.3%) were of the Jewish faith with most of those coming from Iran(658) and Russia(545).

However….

HIAS has put itself out as the most politically active refugee resettlement agency making them not hard to miss on the internet!

Indeed, according to media reports (assuming they are accurate!), what drew the killer to a target was HIAS’s e-mail advertisement for their special services called National Refugee Shabbat held in hundreds of synagogues in the run-up to the November election.

As readers here know, there are nine federal resettlement contractors*** and based on my informal assessment going back several years, HIAS is the most politically active of the resettlement contractors and has been dogging Donald Trump unrelentingly since the 2016 Presidential campaign.

Hetfield at NY protest — HIAS CEO Mark Hetfield at 2017 pro-refugee/anti-Trump rally in New York.

Not far behind as open borders political organizers and activists, I would put Church World Service and then the US Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Charities.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is also very politically engaged.

Free speech!

They don’t just advocate for refugees!

I think we all agree everyone is entitled to free speech, and HIAS can demonstrate in the streets against the President and for open borders, they can sue the Administration, they can cheer on the migrant caravan and they can campaign against Republicans in the midterms, but what is so patently unfair to the average citizen who is learning about their community organizing activities (from alternative media) is that they receive millions and millions of taxpayer dollars each year while promoting a political agenda that many Americans vehemently disagree with.

If they were truly a private non-profit organization, they could pay big salaries and politically organize to their hearts content, but when they are a government partner, ostensibly to care for refugees, we expect them to be neutral on what is the greatest concern facing the country now—-immigration.

Where is Congress?

The mainstream media rarely tells the public about the source of the resettlement contractors’ funds, and Congress has never, in the ten years I’ve followed the US Refugee Admissions Program, ever done any oversight of the federal contracting system that these nine have monopolized, in some cases for over three decades.

Funding the Open Borders Left!

See just for starters this graph from the Capital Research Center showing the last ten years of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the nine VOLAGS.

simpson-table-2 — HIAS is in column 4 under VOLAGs. $186 million from the US Treasury in ten years. I think you can see that many of these refugee agencies involved in political activities could not survive without your tax dollars.

Again, there is no excuse for violence, but there is great frustration out there that a serious effort to be more open and transparent with the public might begin to quell.

So, how about the mainstream media does its job and gives the public the facts about groups like HIAS so ‘conspiracy’ theories don’t develop, and then it would be refreshing if Congress took its role seriously, investigated where our tax dollars are going and what they are being used for, and thus give us confidence that our government cares about us—Americans first!

I’ll update this post as we get more information.

*** The nine major contractors (VOLAGS) that monopolize the US Refugee Admissions Program are these:

Church World Service (CWS)
Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (DFMS is its other name)
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS)
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
World Relief Corporation (WR)

State Department: 30,000 refugee cap for FY19 may not be final number!

09/23/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We too were surprised when Secretary of State Pompeo announced a cap of 30,000 refugees to be admitted to the US in FY19 which begins in nine days.

Although as we have chronicled over the years, the State Department and Congress have played loosey-goosey with the required “consultation” between the branches over the refugee numbers for the coming year, Pompeo’s surprise announcement did seem premature.

(See my post of last year about what the process is supposed to entail, here.)

Goodlatte and Trump — Judiciary Chairman Goodlatte to the Prez: We want to “consult” on refugee cap. So Bob, where is the hearing also required by law!

Now we see there is some waffling after a sanctimonious Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte has called out the Administration for not “consulting” with them first.

Many legally-required consultations over the last ten years have been nothing-burgers where a few staffers from the State Department went to the Hill to meet with staffers there to discuss the coming refugee year.

I don’t know if any Members even show up. I asked my Congressman if I might be permitted to go to the consultation one year and he reported that, no the public was not permitted to attend.

Although, in most years the consultations were perfunctory, there was one exception recently and that was the big show that Secretary of State John Kerry put on for FY2016 about Obama’s inflated 110,000 determination in the fall of 2016. (They thought Hillary was going to win and they were flexing muscles and getting ready for the big year ahead!)

Otherwise there has been only scant attention paid to the law requiring that the President consult with Congress over the numbers.

Now here we see that the outgoing Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Bob Goodlatte, wants his consultation.

Heck, maybe the Administration can give him a consultation next month, or in November, and hold up the whole darn thing with zero coming in in the interim!

From The Hill:

Goodlatte: Administration undercut law, Congress by setting refugee cap

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) on Thursday accused the State Department of defying the law by proposing a sharp reduction in refugees to the United States.

The charge marks a rare rebuke of the administration from Goodlatte, who wants officials to consult “immediately” with Congress before establishing a final cap on refugees to be accepted into the country next year.

“The law is clear: the Administration must consult with Congress prior to the President’s determination of the annual refugee ceiling,” Goodlatte said in a statement. “But this did not happen this year, and the Trump Administration has no excuse for not complying with their obligation under the law.”

[….]

Democrats have pounced on the cutbacks, warning that the administration is undermining the country’s historic role and international credibility as the world’s safe-harbor for threatened populations and a champion of human rights.

Republican critics have focused less on the figures than on the legality of the administration’s move to establish a cap without first seeking input from Congress. Earlier this week, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) condemned the administration’s unilateral move.

[….]

Goodlatte took that criticism a step further, suggesting no refugee cap can be legally established without Congress weighing in first.

“There is a real question as to whether the President can even set a number of refugees that carries the weight of law unless it is done after an appropriate consultation with Congress,” Goodlatte said.

He’s also calling for reforms that would empower Congress, not the administration, to have the ultimate say in determining that annual number.

By the way, Goodlatte has been responsible for this committee and the refugee program for years and never really pushed for serious reform of the Refugee Act of 1980. Oh yeh, he proposed some legislation, but never made it a priority.

Now we see that in response, the State Department is saying there is wiggle room in that 30,000 cap. The Hill story continues….

On Tuesday, the day after Pompeo’s announcement, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the administration plans to consult with Congress before finalizing its refugee ceiling. The cap “may” change, she said, based on those talks.

Hey folks, don’t think this means the number could go down!

Remember I said it should be zero, which would be the only leverage the White House would have to push a complete overhaul of an ill-conceived US Refugee Admissions Program.

Where is Goodlatte’s hearing?

Before the President makes his final ‘determination’ a hearing “shall be held” in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees!

So let’s have the full legal requirements carried out which includes a public hearing by Goodlatte’s committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee centered around a report the State Department is supposed to send to Congress as part of the consultation process.

Let’s begin following the law now and maybe the whole decision can be dragged out for months.

Hundreds of refugees being removed from “squalid” housing in Omaha, Nebraska

09/22/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is one more reason that the Trump Administration should be pushing for a complete review of the US Refugee Admissions Program with an eye to up-ending—dumping entirely or re-writing—the foolish system put into motion by the Refugee Act of 1980.

We simply can’t bring in so many refugees that they then live in squalor, placed there by some supposedly ‘religious’ charities paid by US taxpayers with virtually no oversight of what they are doing and no accounting of where our money goes.

And, not to mention, having an economic, cultural, and health impact on Americans kept in the dark about the arrival of poor third worlders to their neighborhoods.

Omaha apartment inspections — Inspectors entering housing complex where hundreds of Burmese refugees were placed by a resettlement contractor working for the US State Department.

Maybe not ‘humanitarian’ at all!

Some might say we are actually promoting slave labor for the meatpacking industry and other giant globalist companies.

It is a long story, and you should read it all at the Omaha World-Herald (hat tip: Joanne):

Squalid Omaha apartments housing refugees targeted by city operation in ‘humanitarian effort’

City of Omaha housing inspectors descended Thursday morning on a north Omaha apartment complex to inspect units and potentially remove and relocate up to 500 refugees from Myanmar living among bedbugs, lice, rodents, gas leaks, mold and other squalid living conditions.

Officials described the operation at the Yale Park Apartments, near 34th Avenue and Lake Streets, as a “humanitarian effort” involving code enforcement, police and fire personnel, as well as members of the philanthropic community and social service agencies who could be tasked with finding temporary housing for hundreds of people.

[….]

Tenants, which include an estimated 175 children, may be forced to live out of community centers equipped with cots in coming days as the scramble begins to find places for them to stay. City officials said they’re trying to respect the tenants’ cultural wishes, too, which likely includes being placed together as much as possible.

[….]

Three men entered the courtyard Thursday morning wearing white hazmat suits and orange rubber boots. People wearing Omaha Public Schools, Heartland Family Services and Lutheran Family Services gear were standing by.

More here.

The reporter wants us to believe that the problem is entirely the landlords fault, but doesn’t tell us that it was Lutheran Family Services, a federal resettlement contractor, that was likely responsible for placing refugees in questionable housing in the first place.

Meatpacking laborers!

The article tells us that many of the Burmese work in meatpacking at nearby Cargill. (Yes, the same Cargill company we mentioned here yesterday with the E.Coli recall).

In 2017 Cargill in Nebraska expanded the size of a plant that then required more laborers. See here.

Learn more about Cargill at wikipedia, it might change some of your buying habits.

If these meapackers want the refugee laborers maybe they should subsidize better housing for them! Or, better still, go back to paying good wages so Americans will be happy to do the job!

Pennsylvania: Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society rep says Trump low admission numbers could end the program

08/23/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Cathryn Miller-Wilson said this to the Philadelphia Inquirer yesterday referring to a rumored ceiling number for FY19 of 25,000:

“Those kind of numbers are the elimination of the refugee resettlement program.”

I think HIAS overstates the case, and I want all of my readers to know that although low numbers might push some of the agencies (contractors)*** under financially (because the government pays them by the head for each refugee they place), the program won’t be eliminated as long as the Refugee Act of 1980 is still on the books in its present form.

I continue to advocate for the Trump Administration to pressure Congress to reform the entire process.

And, frankly time is running out! If the Republicans lose the house in November, then it is all over for years.

And, if the Republicans survive and Trump is not our president after 2020, there will be no reform.

So it is now or never!

Message to the White House:

Think big!

Go on the offense!

You are going to be blasted for any number lower than the 75,000 refugees the contractors are demanding. So, my recommendation is that you set the level at zero and tell Congress to reform the program. If they want refugees, then review and reform the law! (And, we know that the White House could send recommended legislation to The Hill right now!)

There is no legal requirement that we take even one refugee!

And, there is no legal requirement that American taxpayers support these nine supposed non-profit groups!

Here is some of the The Inquirer story with a title we have come to expect:

Immigrant advocates fear U.S. will no longer be a beacon for refugees

The fear among immigration advocates is not only that thousands of refugees could remain stuck in overseas camps. Or that staffers at resettlement agencies in Philadelphia and elsewhere could be laid off or reassigned.

Muslims praying at WH — HIAS helped organize this protest against the President. That is their banner at right. Is this what they do with our money?

They’re afraid that the United States’ historic mission of welcoming the world’s most vulnerable people [like those in the photo?—ed] could effectively be coming to an end, with President Trump expected to again lower the annual limit on refugee admissions.

The talk filtering from Washington to on-the-ground agencies is that Trump could put the new cap at 25,000, with perhaps only half that number actually entering the country, the result of bureaucratic delays and other factors. He set the current year’s figure at 45,000, a nearly four-decade low. Less than half that number have been admitted as the end of the fiscal year approaches on Sept. 30.

[….]

By law, the president, in consultation with Congress, must issue what is called the Presidential Determination before the new fiscal year starts on Oct. 1. Generally, the number begins to leak from government officials around Labor Day.

[….]

Refugees come to the Philadelphia region from Afghanistan, Iraq, Bhutan, and elsewhere around the globe, but now in smaller numbers.

“We can’t just be quiet about this,” said Cathryn Miller-Wilson, executive director of HIAS PA, which provides legal and support services to immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. “Those kind of numbers are the elimination of the refugee resettlement program.”

More here.

*** These below are the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors.

You might be sick of seeing this list almost every day, but a friend once told me that people need to see something seven times before it completely sinks in, so it seems to me that 70, or even 700 isn’t too much!

And, besides I have new readers every day.

The present US Refugee Admissions Program will never be reformed if the system of paying the contractors by the head stays in place and the contractors are permitted to act as Leftwing political agitation groups and community organizers paid on our dime! And, to add insult to injury they pretend it is all about ‘humanitarianism.’

From my most recent accounting, here. However, please see that Nayla Rush at the Center for Immigration Studies has done an update of their income!