Panic button as refugee contracting agencies begin
to downsize as they lose federal $$$, by
Ann Corcoran on 2/17/17
I have a lot of catching up to do
today…. Update: More here on the subject of World Relief downsizing (Nashville).
Here is Leo Hohmann at World Net Daily with a report from yesterday (I spent all day yesterday in
Washington) on more news from the federal refugee contractors crying about
their federal funding drying up in the wake of the Trump Administration’s
slowdown on refugee arrivals.
(We also mentioned some of this news
on Tuesday, here), and it is still a mystery as to why “arrivals” would
begin to dry up on March 3rd (is it the money flowing to contractors that will
dry up?).
Hohmann: Refugee-resettlement agencies are scrambling
to cut staff and, in some cases, close entire offices as they prepare for a
reduction in refugee arrivals to the U.S. under President Donald Trump’s
unfolding policy.
A pro-refugee group leaked an “official guidance” from the U.S. State
Department to NPR Wednesday that said refugee arrivals will begin to dry up after
March 3.
As WND reported last week, the one
part of Trump’s embattled executive order that was not blocked by the Ninth
Circuit Court, was his reduction of the fiscal-2017 cap on refugees from
110,000 set by Barack Obama to 50,000. The fiscal year ends Oct. 1.
Since 35,000 refugees have already
arrived, that would mean another 15,000 would be allowed in by Oct. 1. The fact
that the State Department is now saying new arrivals will end by March 3 means
Trump could be planning to lower the ceiling further since it would be nearly
impossible to hit the 50,000 cap in a little over two weeks.
Continue here. Hohmann goes on to report on the ‘plight’ of World Relief,
one of the nine major federal government refugee contractors.
And, then here is Katherine
Rodriguez at Breitbart on World Relief: An evangelical relief and development agency that works with the United
Nations’ refugee program announced Wednesday that it will lay off 140 staff
members and close five offices.
World Relief, which is one of the
nine U.S. organizations that works with the UN, called the decision “a direct
result of the recent decision by the Trump Administration,” citing President
Trump’s executive order that capped the number of refugees allowed into the
United States, the Washington Post reported.
The organization will close its offices in Boise, Idaho; Columbus,
Ohio; Miami; Nashville; and Glen Burnie, Md. and
lay off 20 percent of its 650 U.S.-based employees. It has 2,500 employees
around the world.
Several of the nine resettlement
agencies including World Relief have launched fundraisers to cover the
unexpected losses they anticipate from the number of refugees admitted.
“It will impact all nine resettlement agencies, so the infrastructure
for refugee resettlement in our country, built over decades, at least since the
Refugee Act of 1980, could be decimated,” Matthew Soerens of World
Relief said. Maybe Mr. Soerens doesn’t remember how low the refugee
flow was in the wake of 9/11, lower than
what Trump has so far determined it will be.
World Relief received about $42 million in government grants, which
amounts to almost three-fourths of the ministry’s total revenue of $62 million,
according to the latest IRS filings from the ministry.
Most federal funding for World
Relief comes in a one-time, per-refugee grant of $2,025, most of which gets
used for expenses such as rent for an apartment and a caseworker for newly
arrived refugees during their first 90 days in the country, Soerens said.
Now, the organization has
to use nongovernmental funding to make up the difference. Boo hoo! More here.
The organization should have been
raising private money for decades! In my opinion they got fat and lazy on
easy-to-get taxpayer money! And, adding insult to injury, as ‘non-profit’
groups they are arrogant and unaccountable, while using our money to build their
bureaucracies.
If there isn’t enough
private money for their “humanitarian” work then it means there aren’t enough
people in America supporting the movement of tens of thousands of impoverished
people to their towns and cities!
I have some ideas on how this
program could be reformed, and first and foremost, I would eliminate completely the VOLAG system.
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