Boo Hoo! Charitable organizations which resettle
refugees forced to raise private funds, by
Ann Corcoran 5/13/17
You have probably seen them—bushels
of stories about how the nine federal resettlement contractors are wailing and moaning
as Trump cuts off their refugee/money flow—but I was surprised that the Wall Street Journal didn’t
do a little better job of putting it all in perspective.
For new readers like Nancy, here are the nine federal resettlement contractors (aka
Volags, short for Voluntary Agencies, Ha! Ha!) that make up the
“refugee-resettlement industry:”
The WSJ does make it clear that these
NON-Profit groups (six are ostensibly religious groups) are paid by the head to place refugees in
your towns and get them signed up for their stuff. For the first few
years that I wrote this blog, mainstream media never mentioned that fact!
So, yes, their budgets will vary as they have become almost completely
dependent on federal money for their salaries/benefits, office rental, travel,
etc.
For them to be whining that they have to raise private money for their
‘religious’ charitable work as refugee numbers vary makes me want to scream. When the Refugee Act of
1980 became law it was supposed to be a public-private partnership, but as the
years have passed, federal funding (and state and local funding!) has become a
greater and greater share.
Before I give you the latest
whine-fest from the WSJ, here is how the contractors got in to this pickle.
Obama set the CEILING for
FY17 at 110,000 in his final months in office. The WSJ tells
us it was the highest ceiling since 1995. Thus the contractors were building their budgets on
a pipe dream of more paying clients (aka refugees) than they
have had for years and years.
That 110,000 was, by far, Obama’s highest
ceiling as we have reported ad nuaseum and as you can see in this chart from
the Refugee Processing Center and is being used dishonestly
as the benchmark for measuring the Trump flow:
Note that the US DOS has gotten
around to removing the 110,000 ceiling for FY2017. This chart last month still
listed it. See last month here:
Last night I wondered just how the
first seven months of the fiscal year matched up (FY17 runs from October 1,
2016 to September 30, 2017). At the end of April we are 7 complete months
in to the fiscal year, and those wailing contractors have been paid handsomely
for 7 months based on the fact that by April 30,2017 we had admitted more paying
clients/refugees than any of the previous ten years. Do the math using the chart
above!
As of the end of April, the US
admitted 42,414 refugees, the highest number in the first seven months of any
of the years since before FY07. In fact, Bush had the lowest first seven
months in 2007—17,150, but even Saint Obama had only 26,181 in FY12 as of April
30th. He never had a year with this high number (by April 30th) in his time in
office.
Now here are a few snips from
the Wall Street Journal giving
the contractors another opportunity to wail and moan!
Although, I have to laugh to
see the phrase “refugee-resettlement industry” in the first line!
Even though President Donald Trump’s
travel ban has been put on hold, his administration is already reshaping the
refugee-resettlement industry.
The Trump administration has cut the rate of refugee arrivals in half
in the first months of the year [this is so dishonest!—ed] and charity organizations that settle refugees are slashing their
budgets in response.
Has Hetfield slashed his salary?
More than half of the nine agencies
that are approved by the State Department to resettle refugees in the U.S. have
already either laid off staff or frozen hiring. Some agencies have let hundreds of people go.
Many are staging fundraising campaigns the help make up for lost federal
funding, which is tied to new refugee arrivals but also supports
programs for refugees already here.
“We’ve been asked by the State
Department to cut our budget twice already,” said Mark Hetfield, president of
HIAS, a Jewish nonprofit that resettles refugees in the U.S. HIAS has
instituted a hiring freeze. “You can’t manage a program like this.”
In the last fiscal year, the federal
government allocated more than $554 million for refugee admissions, and 84,994
refugees were resettled. More than $227 million of that money was
distributed to the nine resettlement agencies, most of them religiously
affiliated that help newcomers adjust to the U.S.
World Relief, one of the
resettlement agencies, began adding case workers in the fall, expecting a huge
influx of refugees. At the organization’s 25 offices, case workers shepherd
refugees through all aspects of life in America. They pick them up at the airport; set up
housing, complete with furniture and clothes; advise them on searching for
jobs; and help enroll children in school.
Oopsy! As Mark
Krikorian pointed out on twitter last
night the reporter left out one important duty of the contractor in that line
above—they sign
the refugee up for all forms of welfare and move on to the next client!
WSJ continues….Resettlement
agencies had been hoping 2017 would be a banner year. In September, before the
Oct. 1 start of the fiscal year, Mr. Obama announced he would raise the number
of refugees allowed into the country to 110,000, the highest total since 1995.
Many agencies began staffing up. [Sniffle—ed]
The nine resettlement agencies
contract much of the work settling new refugees out to hundreds of local
affiliates. These organizations are paid $2,075 for each refugee they resettle,
the majority of which goes directly to refugee assistance. [No! About half goes to the contractor for
salaries and overhead!—ed]
Many resettlement
organizations have started fundraising campaigns to try to make up for lost
revenue. Pity! They actually have to go out to the
public and look for private charitable dollars for their humanitarian good
works.
You know what it means if they can’t
find private money? It means the public is generally not behind their
efforts to import poverty and diversify American cities and towns with refugees
from the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
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