Refugee Update
International Rescue Committee, IRC gives up plans
for new resettlement site in Asheville, NC; write to Congress! by Ann Corcoran 6/17/17
This story is from about ten days
ago (just getting around to posting it). What it says to me is that the
resettlement contractors are a) pretty worried that the Trump Administration
will come in low when it sends its FY18 ‘determination’ to the Hill in
September, and b) they aren’t going to push an office where the Congressman for
the area is totally opposed to it.
On that last point, I am going to continue to hammer every day that you
must hound your member of Congress on the
refugee program.
In my opinion, the only way to bring
about reform is for the Trump Administration to send a determination
for ZERO refugees for FY18 and demand Congress get to work reforming the
monstrosity. As it stands now the
Republican leadership wants more cheap refugee labor available for big business
and the Dems want reliable Democrat voters. Taxpayers foot the bill!
Here is the news from Asheville
(from the Citizen-Times). And, btw, since 9/11 North Carolina is #13 on the
list of states ‘welcoming’ refugees. It received 30,827 refugees in that time
(overall, the US admitted 917,639 since FY2002).
ASHEVILLE – A global aid and humanitarian organization announced
Thursday it was cancelling plans to make Asheville a resettlement site for 150
refugees. The move comes six months after the
inauguration of Republican President Donald Trump and one year since staff with
the International Rescue Committee conducted an exploratory visit in Asheville.
During meetings with stakeholders
last June, the IRC received “overwhelming” support to move forward, said Sean Piazza,
a spokesman for the large nonprofit. [LOL! even the reporter here knows this is a large nonprofit!—ed]
But, executive orders issued by the new administration place in question
admission of refugees to the United States in 2017 and beyond, he said. “Unfortunately, in light of these current
policies, IRC is not in a position to continue opening an office in Asheville,”
Piazza said.
The IRC is in conversation with the Trump administration to ensure the
United State’s commitment to offering a safe haven for the world’s most
vulnerable citizens, Piazza said.
“We ask supportive
communities to convey this same message to your members of Congress,” said
Piazza. “We appreciate the warm reception and support we received in
Asheville.”
The IRC helped resettle nearly
10,000 refugees in 2015 including people from Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Even before Trump’s orders, the expansion of refugee services into
Western North Carolina was challenged some of the region’s more conservative
residents. U.S. Rep. Mark Meadows, R-Buncombe, opposed the IRC’s plan in August. More here at the Citizen-Times.
Meanwhile in Montana another IRC office is limping
along The International Rescue Committee is
responsible for opening Montana to refugees (there was a small resettlement
program there years ago), but against strong opposition, they convinced the US
State Department in 2016 to let them open a new site in Missoula. At
present, Montana is #47 on the list of states ‘welcoming’ refugees (only
Hawaii, Mississippi and Wyoming received less).
Here is recent news on that program. See my Montana
archive by clicking here. So where else is the large, very rich and powerful IRC working?
Here is a list of the
cities where the International Rescue
Committee is planting third-world poverty (their effort to get a foothold in NC
has failed for now): There are 27 cities listed on the original posting.
And, since I hadn’t checked the
IRC’s finances lately, I figured it was a good time to check a recent Form 990. (BTW, this is the first time I am using this Pro-Publica website. Try it out!) The IRC is
about 67% funded by taxpayers (yesterday we learned that EMM is 99.5% funded by you, the American
taxpayer!)
In addition to the income in my
screenshot (below), they have another $1,451,183 listed as IOM Loan Collection
Fee. This is your money too. The contractors are the collection agencies
for the loan given to refugees for their airfare to your town and as the
collection agency they get a cut of what they collect from the financially struggling
refugees. (LOL! this is justified as teaching refugees how to handle their
money and their debt!).
Doing well by doing good!
IRC lists 13 Executives paid from $235,000 to $592,000 a year.
Editor: Let me be clear! If this was a private organization raising
private funds, I wouldn’t care what kind of salaries they pay, but since
approximately 67% of their annual income comes from taxpayers, this becomes our
business! The most fun part of reporting on
the refugee contractors*** finances is always the salaries page of the Form
990. Here is the page from the same Form 990 I got the income from above.
David Miliband, the CEO of the IRC,
is a British national who was the former Labor Foreign Secretary. He was
feted when he arrived in New York City to take the reins of the IRC by the
likes of Bill Clinton, George Soros and Samantha Power, here.
See my David Miliband archive here. He was the first to call for Obama to bring in
65,000 Syrians in one year! Drum roll please! Here are the top
salaries at the IRC (most are higher than most members of
Congress/Senators, here). Look at it this way, you are paying
67% of these peoples’ salaries as they make decisions affecting your neighborhood!
I know this is getting long, but the
more I think about it, if what you have read concerns you, you should consider
writing a real letter (not a call or e-mail) to your member of Congress and US
Senators and demand that the US Refugee Admissions program be defunded until an
effort is made to reform it.
Because of the huge amounts of money
sent from the US Treasury to these supposed non-profits for their ‘charitable’
work, there is never any incentive to slow the flow for any reason. The Refugee Act of 1980 has set up a
permanent class of activist lobbying groups who will naturally scream bloody
murder if the flow is slowed because it is attached to their budgetary bottom
lines. And, if you do write a real letter,
tell your representatives that you expect a letter in response. Please
feel free to take anything from these pages!
For new readers, these are the nine
federal refugee contractors that monopolize the admissions program (and lobby
Congress for more and more refugees!).
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