Wednesday, July 12, 2017

Unnecessary Refugee Costs

Updating financial data on refugee contractors, big bucks for ‘humanitarian’ work! by Ann Corcoran, 7/11/17

I hadn’t checked the most recent data on how much of your money goes to the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors (aka VOLAGs) lately.  So here is the latest information I could find. I had to use several sources mostly because some contractors do not file a Form 990 (LOL! they claim they are churches and are thus exempt).

Unfortunately I couldn’t find all income information for all nine for the same year, so it is a little hard to make a direct comparison, but you get the idea.

These are the nine major federal resettlement contractors.  (Go here to see a data base with the hundreds of subcontractors working for them in a town near you.)
·       International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)

Church World Service (71% funded by taxpayers) Church World Service as of June 2016 had a total revenue for the previous year of $88,455,527. 71.3% of their millions comes from you the taxpayer according to Charity Navigator, here. You are the source of government grants: Their chief executive, Rev. John McCullough makes an annual salary of $251,224.

Ethiopian Community Development Council (93% funded by taxpayers) ECDC is not rated at Charity Navigator so I had to use their most recent Form 990, see here. (If you have trouble opening the Form 990, go here and then download the document.) Their total revenue for the year ending September 30, 2014 was $17,448,992.  You will see on page 9 that they received $16,290,580 in government grants making them 93% funded by you, the taxpayer. ECDC’s President Tsehaye Teferra has income listed on page 7 in three columns. The first is direct compensation of $171,683 and the two other columns involve other income from this organization and from “related” organizations of$57,857 and $46,843 (don’t ask me what that is!).

Episcopal Migration Ministries (aka Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society of the Episcopal Church) (99.5% funded by taxpayers) We know they are 99.5% funded by you because they admitted it here.  But, because their federal funds flow in to a church ‘kitty’ and because churches don’t file Form 990’s (or most churches don’t), we have no idea how much they are getting or what the program leaders are being paid.  Frankly, this is shameful! If you are of the Episcopal faith, you need to start asking questions!

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (aka HIAS) (57% funded by taxpayers) According to Charity Navigator for the year ending 12/2015, HIAS had a total revenue of $40,565,891. Chief executive Mark Hetfield‘s annual salary in that report is $358,718.

International Rescue Committee (66.5% funded by taxpayers) Be sure to focus on how much bigger the IRC is with an annual revenue of $688,920,920! From Charity Navigator: 66.5% is in the vicinity of $455 MILLION of your dollars annually! Head honcho David Miliband hit the jackpot with this annual salary: $591,846!

US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (98% funded with taxpayer dollars) USCRI is a little harder to figure out.  Charity Navigator does not rate them for this reason: This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated. You could say that USCRI is a quasi-government organization masquerading as a non-profit! So we go to the most recent Form 990 available for year ending September 30, 2015.  (Or download pdf at ProPublica, here)

On page 9 you can see that they only take in less than $1 million of their $51,524,570 from private gifts and contributions.  All of their “program income” is likely through taxpayer dollars as well. President and CEO Lavinia Limon makes $260,258 in annual compensation plus pulls down another $42,231 from this and related organizations (whatever that is!).

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is 96-97% funded by taxpayers Like USCRI it’s a little hard to figure out, from their recent Form 990 here where their total income is $55,983,615, exactly which of the fees in their income column actually are taxpayer dollars too. We can assume there isn’t much private charity going to LIRS because Charity Navigator says the same thing they did for USCRI which is: This organization is not eligible to be rated by Charity Navigator because, as a service for individual givers, we only rate organizations that depend on support from individual contributors and foundations. Organizations such as this, that get most of their revenue from the government or from program services, are therefore not eligible to be rated. Just a reminder that USCRI and LIRS are really quasi-government agencies yet they are busy lobbying Congress and otherwise community organizing in order to influence the media and Congress to support more refugees (aka paying clients!) coming to America. LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke makes an annual salary of $274,632and an additional $33,401 from this and related organizations (page 8).

US Conference of Catholic Bishops Migration Fund (97% taxpayer funded) Now it gets even trickier! The Bishops don’t file a Form 990 and their operations are so vast, I could spend the whole day and still not sort it out.  Also, maybe you can find one, but I have not found an annual report for their refugee program since I found this one for 2014. So we will have to rely on it (again). Keep in mind these funds for their refugee resettlement program do not include millions that go directly from the feds to some individual Catholic Charities and Dioceses around the US. (If you are researching your local CC or Dioceses, you can often find good numbers at USASpending.gov) “Federal grants” is your money, so is the Travel Loan Collection Fees, so that puts the Bishops’ refugee resettlement program at 97% taxpayer funded.  (I am not sure if the Unaccompanied Alien Children fall in to yet another fund!). I would like to get a more up-to-date accounting for the Bishops, but they must be hiding those reports really well!  I suspect they are pulling down even more payola in more recent years. Obviously we don’t know what salaries are being paid for their Washington, DC lobbying shop. Their previous head lobbyist was Kevin Appleby.

World Relief (Corp. National Association of Evangelicals) is 72.8% funded by taxpayer dollars  That is according to Charity Navigator, here.  Total revenue is $62,583,313 for the year ending September 30, 2015.  But, I did find a more recent Form 990, here, with a huge jump in income in one year to $71,022,032.  I thought World Relief was broke and closing offices??? (Gives me an idea for another post and that is to report on some of the contractors increases in funding over several years). That Form 990 shows something I hadn’t seen in other Form 990’s and that is that the Prez/CEO doesn’t make a whole lot, but some financial officer (Barry Howard) is making over $250,000 big ones (see pages 7 & 8).

Here is Charity Navigator’s “contributions” breakdown. Ha! Ha! your tax dollars for government grants are contributions! Whew!  What a job searching for all that financial information! Hope you made it this far!

Can you see now why I say there will be no reform of the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program as long as these nine contractors, masquerading as charities, are sucking on the federal teat and bidding for bodies (aka refugee ‘clients’)?
And, adding insult to injury, they lobby, kiss up to the media, and community organize against you who are paying for the whole refugee racket!

None of these organizations would survive very long if Congress and the President cut them loose (or stated more kindly and so as not to mix metaphors!—weaned them!).
Your daily assignment! Write to the White House, here.


https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/07/11/updating-financial-data-on-refugee-contractors-big-bucks-for-humanitarian-work/

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