Jeff Bezos Ex-Wife Gives Millions Away to Leftwing Agitation Groups

06/24/2021 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 1 Comment

The list is long, but the one that caught my interest was HIAS (formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) and one of nine federal refugee contractors I have been writing about for going on 14 years.

Hetfield featured at anti-Trump rally in NYC in February 2017. **https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2017/02/14/breitbart-federally-funded-refugee-resettlement-contractor-hias-organized-ny-rally-against-trump/**

Of those nine (below), HIAS hustlers have been the most political, by far, of the contractors and its head honcho, Mark Hetfield, was out front for four years working to defeat Donald Trump with rallies in the streets and cases in the courts all the while sucking up millions of your tax dollars.

Here is the news at Information Liberation.

Thanks to a reader for spotting it!

Bezos’ Ex-Wife MacKenzie Scott Donates $2.7B to Fund HIAS, Open Borders Lobby, Pro-Censorship Groups, Racial Justice NGOs

MacKenzie Scott, who received $38 billion from her divorce with Jeff Bezos, is giving leftist NGOs, the open borders lobby and “racial justice” agitators their greatest windfall in history.

Scott on Tuesday released a list of 286 groups she’s giving another $2.7 billion in divorce money to on her blog.

The first which stands out is HIAS, formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which works to resettle refugees through America.

They didn’t say how much her donation was but the head of the group [Hetfield] said it “would enable the group to become an emergency responder to refugee crises around the world in addition to a resettlement agency,” eJewishPhilanthropy reported.

HIAS’s latest financial report for 2019 says they had $80 million in total assets and $55 million in net assets.

I’m assuming they probably got a lot more than the $7 million she gave to Repair The World as they’re now planning to go global.

Another notable group on the list is Muslim Advocates, which is basically just a Muslim copy of the Anti-Defamation League that lobbies for internet censorship, mass immigration and hate speech laws.

The top of their website says how they’re suing Facebook for not censoring enough.

More here.

Because you may not be a reader at RRW, here is one of the things I have done over the years and that is to check out IRS Form 990s for the resettlement contractors/political agitators.

Visiting two pages will give you a feel for an organization. First I want to know how much federal money they receive for their ‘religious’ charitable work.

Here (below) is page 9 of HIAS most recently available Form 990 (2019).

When I first started examining tax documents for non-profits, this information was on page one, but at some point it was moved to page 9 presumably to deter nosey taxpayers from finding it.

Government grants is your involuntary gift from the US Treasury. Some or all of the million in fees is taxpayer money as well.

And here, check out the six-figure salaries the top execs are making.

I call it doing well by doing good. Think about how some staffer for HIAS is making more than a US Senator, Congressman or Supreme Court Justice!

By the way, if you think it is not kosher of me to post salaries I would agree if the business entity was truly a private one, but these government contractors are spending our money so I figure it is fair game.

To learn more about HIAS, check out my extensive archive at Refugee Resettlement Watch. To be fair, you should know that some of the refugee contractors get many millions more of payola from the feds than does HIAS.

Below are the nine federal refugee contractors that monopolize all resettlement of third world refugees to your towns and cities. They will soon be awash in your money as Harris/Biden say they will admit 125,000 refugees from Africa, Asia and the Middle East to the US beginning on October first.

The contractors are paid on a per refugee head basis and to a large degree determine which towns and cities will be new resettlement targets.

Somali-born Ayaan Hirsi Ali Says America is the Best Place in the World to be Black and be a Woman

06/07/2021 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 2 Comments

That is what the highly respected author and activist told Tucker Carlson recently at Fox Nation.

Not surprisingly, she is imploring Americans to organize against critical race theory.

Hirsi Ali also calls out the “corrupt” Southern Poverty Law Center that has targeted her on its infamous Hate list.

(Just for the record, I am also a target of the SPLC as they have labeled Refugee Resettlement Watch, my other blog, as a hate group. Never mind that RRW is not a group. Details like that don’t matter when they are using fear to raise money!)

Here is the news from Fox:

America ‘best place in world’ to be female, Black, gay, trans: Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Somali-Dutch scholar and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali strongly criticized the increasing presence of critical race theory and racial politics in the United States, commenting that as a Black woman, the United States is the best nation in the world for minority rights on the part of both race and gender.

Too funny! Last summer Hirsi Ali (left) challenged MN Rep. Ilhan Omar by asking her, “Why Flee Mogadishu and then … turn Minnesota and US into Mogadishu?” Good question!

Ali, who was the victim of the regional custom of genital mutilation and later became a women rights activist speaking out against such customs; after her father shepherded her family out of Somalia, said on Fox Nation’s “Tucker Carlson Today” that those who preach division and theories of inequality do not recognize America’s unique standing as a beacon for the oppressed — rather than a feature of oppression.

“That’s what’s so great about America is that a lot of these things have actually been achieved; equality between men and women, it’s the best place in the world to be female, it’s the best place in the world to be Black, it’s the best place in the world to be gay, trans, whatever you want to be,” she told host Tucker Carlson.

I read Hirsi Ali’s ‘Infidel’ when it came out in 2007 and it had a great influence on my thinking at a time when Muslim refugees, like Ilhan Omar, were being spread throughout America.

“That is America. What do we do with all those achievements if you still want to keep an organization going and still want to get money from donors.”

Ali said that institutions like to “invent” new problems that don’t otherwise exist, or at least not to the drastic extent they are advertised to be.

“If you still want to keep the organization going and still want to get money from donors, you start to invent new stories and new problems. And you come up with things like Islamophobia,” said Ali, who was born Muslim but later became an atheist.

Southern Poverty Law Center scammers….

She added that one example is the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center, which claims to identify hate groups and hateful individuals – which had put her and former radical Islamist Maajid Nawaz – who went on to found an organization called Quilliam dedicated to counter-extremism and empowerment of moderate theism – on a suspicious “list.”

[….]

“The SPLC … put us on a list which looked a bit like a hit list, I have to say. Because if you are on that list, you make it very easy for those people who may not constantly be making their own lists to go after you,” she said.

“So in many ways, they’re sinister, they’re wrong, they’re corrupt, and the corruption is trying to take people’s money, vulnerable people’s money to pretend that they’re fighting for something that they actually are not fighting for.”

Ali told Carlson that it is important for people to organize instead to counter things like critical race theory with critical thinking.

[….]

“When Black people in America were subjected to slavery and all sorts of humiliation, they were able to wave those documents [our founding documents—ed] to fight for their dignity, their equality, their freedom — That’s a unique thing — that’s what I try to tell Americans: You don’t have that in Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Ethiopia or even any of those European countries: It’s unique to America.”

More here with clips of the interview with Tucker.

Montgomery County Maryland Plans to ‘Welcome’ up to 3,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children This Year

05/17/202105/17/2021 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 4 Comments

But, they are not alone and likely some of the other top ‘welcoming’ counties in America will see numbers higher than that.

How many UACs is your county getting? **https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/01/12/dhs-two-ny-ms-13-stabbing-suspects-exploited-unaccompanied-minor-loophole-to-enter-u-s/**

See the data maintained by the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement and note that MoCo, although among the highest counties that will absorb the illegal alien teens, is not the highest.

And, by the way, the data at ORR is only through March and you know the April 2021 invasion is surely one of the largest in many years.

If you don’t see your county, it doesn’t mean your state is off the hook, state data is here.

‘Non-profit’ organizations in the county are scrambling for money they say they need to keep the mostly teenaged boys out of gangs.

What a mess. If you live in this wealthy Maryland County that borders Washington, DC, move! But, first get your kids out of the school system which will see the disastrous impact of Biden’s Open Borders policy first.

LOL! the Biden gang has put out the word that Unaccompanied Alien Children, a title used for years, is now verboten and we must refer to the illegal aliens as Unaccompanied Minors. So therefore, my message to you is to keep using the accurate term—Unaccompanied Alien Children.

From WUSA9:

As Montgomery County expects wave of unaccompanied minors, local nonprofit works to expand capacity

There have been at least 104 undocumented migrant children resettled with family or sponsors in Montgomery County since October, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. However, the latest data is from February which likely means many more children have already relocated to the county.

As of late April, Montgomery County Public Schools recorded 70 students are believed to be unaccompanied minors. Officials expect 3,000 undocumented children to reach the county by this year or as early as summer.

The federal data base shows that Montgomery County received 178 UACs through the end of March, so if 70 registered for school, where are the other 108? And, why is the database not up to date?

The Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (MCHHS) is partnered with eight organizations: Identity, Inc., Family Services, Inc., CASA, Mary’s Center, Impact Silver Spring, Catholic Charities, LAYC (Latin American Youth Council) and Ayuda.

About eight or so years ago, I posted often about CASA, see here if you are interested.

The county had planned to call FEMA and the Office of Refugee Resettlement for federal funding since it’s one of the top 10 receiving sites for asylum-seeking children.

“The call took place but there were no commitments from FEMA about funding,” a MCHHS spokesperson said.

One of the major concerns to avoid is the involvement of gangs.

Community leaders know gangs are preparing themselves to recruit many of the young people as members offer what could seem like a family environment.

[….]

A Montgomery County police spokesperson said the department is working with the Department of Health and Human Services to address gang preventative measures for all undocumented minors.

[….]

In Virginia, there have been 119 resettlements in Fairfax County.

The sponsors who help happen at the federal level. The Office of Refugee Resettlement works with organizations such as Bethany Christian Services & Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Services on sponsoring children. These organizations previously are certified and licensed at the federal level.

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, headquartered at the Inner Harbor in Baltimore, is a federal refugee contractor which I write about often at RRW. The UACs, however, are NOT refugees, remember that!

Two Major Refugee Contractors Receive Millions to Move Illegal Aliens from the Border to Interior US

$55 million is their take (of your money) for the children! over the last twelve months.

P.S. Maryland Republican Governor Hogan is apparently not saying a word about the ‘children’ flooding into the state for taxpayers to support. Twenty other governors are saying NO, even as the federal government ignores them.

Unaccompanied Alien Children Taking Spaces from American Kids in Foster Care

04/30/2021 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 3 Comments

But, at least in some states Republican governors are saying NO!

“I do not want our kids harmed as the result of President Biden’s bad policies.”

(Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts)

One Republican Governor who apparently doesn’t mind helping Biden out of the border crisis mess is never-Trumper and Jeb Bush pal Republican Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland.

MD Republican Gov Larry Hogan apparently okay with UACs taking Maryland foster care slots.

Or, does he even know that an organization in our state, which received $55 million in the last 12 months from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement specifically to care for the UAC kids, is using Maryland’s foster care system to place the mostly teenaged ‘children’ (who have so-far found no relative in America willing to take them) into Maryland homes?

Makes me wonder what Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is doing with $55 million (75% of their federal boodle) that is for the children if they are simply placing them in other taxpayer-funded foster care as this news at CBS suggests.

From CBS Baltimore:

For months now, we’ve seen images of federal facilities packed with thousands of unaccompanied minors at a time when there are a record number of children reaching the southern border, most coming from Central America. The sheer volume of children is overwhelming the federal government’s resources with thousands of children packed into facilities never meant to handle this amount.

Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, LIRS CEO previously was a candidate for governor of Maryland and before that she worked for Michelle in the White House.

But one Baltimore based organization, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, is working to move kids out of those facilities and into the homes of families eager to help.

[….]

“Our focus is getting these children out of Customs and Border Protection facilities,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah***, CEO of LIRS.

[….]

LIRS pairs kids with foster families across the country, including dozens here in Maryland.

[….]

But in the meantime, Vignarajah says the need is still great as the children continue to arrive at the southern border. “We have seen unprecedented numbers of children coming across the border and so we need more parents than ever before and so if anyone out there is willing to open up their home and hearts, these children could use their care,” she said.

More here.

Other state leaders ARE putting American children first!

From Pew Trusts:

(Just so you know, until a few short weeks about the ‘children’ illegally crossing our borders were referred to as Unaccompanied Alien Children, however a Biden administration edict now directs all media to refer to them as Unaccompanied Migrant Children, or simply Unaccompanied Children! Here Pew does what they are told!)

Republican Governors Block Unaccompanied Migrant Children

FORT WORTH, Texas — The federal foster care system was unprepared to house the record nearly 19,000 unaccompanied children who came to the United States in March, so the Biden administration asked some states to temporarily house them.

Republican governors in Iowa, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming said no.

“This is not our problem,” said Iowa Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds. “This is the president’s problem. He’s the one that has opened the border and he needs to be responsible for this and he needs to stop it.”

The governors claim that unaccompanied children would displace those already in state foster care or limit states’ ability to make new placements.

“Nebraska is declining their request because we are reserving our resources for serving our kids,” Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts said in an April 13 news release. “I do not want our kids harmed as the result of President Biden’s bad policies.”

Who is paying?

But federal officials note that care providers for unaccompanied children are paid via federal grants and operate separately from state child welfare systems.

Is LIRS paying the families directly out of their federal payola? If so, they need to explain it! And, explain who is monitoring the care the illegal alien kids are getting once placed in foster care homes.

Of course as Pew admits there are still costs to state taxpayers:

Caring for unaccompanied children does require some limited state resources, because states license and monitor foster care providers contracted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the federal agency in charge of housing unaccompanied minors.

However, there currently are no federally funded foster care providers for unaccompanied minors in any of the five states where Republican governors have expressed concerns, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services records analyzed by Stateline show.

Pew goes on and on consuming many column inches on the subject of bed space and how much, or how little, Trump left us with when the Dems stole the 2020 election.

Contractor middlemen….

Pew reports something we already knew (at least for LIRS and the USCCB).

Foster care providers who care for unaccompanied children include the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, BCFS Health and Human Services, Upbring, and Urban Strategies.

But, still unclear is how does this contract system work? And, why are middlemen even necessary? Couldn’t the feds just send money directly to state agencies willing to participate?

I wondered where Endeavors is in all of this? That is another give-or-take $500 million for housing the ‘children.’

There is much more at Pew.

I guess we can conclude that our tax dollars (to care for the illegal alien kids) go through a bunch of contractor middlemen masquerading as non-profits (skimming off generous salaries and office overhead) as they go about looking for states willing to put unaccompanied alien children into their state’s foster care system thereby displacing needy American kids.

As I have been saying all along, federal refugee contractors put Americans Last!

Is that what your governor is doing as well?

*** I just had a look at a recent IRS Form 990 for LIRS, and Vignarajah is pulling down an annual salary and benefits package of a quarter of a million (apparently a pay cut from the previous CEO who left under a cloud).

Since LIRS is about 87% federally funded, they are a fake non-profit. LOL! You can be assured that this ‘religious’ federal contractor is not passing the plate on Sundays to pay for their ‘charitable’ work.

See this post I wrote a year ago at RRW about Krish and her hubby, the Washington DC Leftie power couple, working another angle—we must welcome more migrants of all stripes due to global warming!

And, somehow that is going to help America’s wildlife and our great outdoor spaces—say what?

Refugee Advocates Join Forces with Major National Wildlife Protection Group

UAC News: Congressman Says Biden Transition Team Member Landed Massive Government Contract

04/27/2021 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ 5 Comments

There is money in managing the great replacement!

See the history of Endeavors, formerly Family Endeavors and before that San Antonio Family Endeavors which was focused on taking care of veterans. That is, until the paying migrants came along! https://endeavors.org/history/

Earlier this month news broke that a little-known nonprofit, Endeavers, was awarded one for the largest contracts ever to help house and manage the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) flooding the US border.

By the way, the Biden feds have dropped the word ‘Alien.’

The story interests me since I have spent a lot of time over the years pointing out the millions of taxpayer dollars flowing to nonprofit refugee resettlement contractors (with inside tracks into government pots of money) for the initial care of the new Americans the Democrats are moving to Anytown, USA.

And, of further interest to me is the fact that the main player in this story touts on his resume his time with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) (one of nine federal refugee contractors I have been writing about for nearly 14 years).

Here is the gist of the story at Axios:

Exclusive: Texas nonprofit got massive border contract after hiring Biden official

A Texas nonprofit that recently hired a Biden transition official got a contract worth as much as $530 million to help manage the influx of migrant children at the southern border, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: The contract is by far the largest ever awarded to Family Endeavors. It’s potentially worth more than 12 times the group’s most recently reported annual budget — a sign of the demand the new work will place on its operations.

~The no-bid contract also is the second largest ever awarded by the agency overseeing the migrant child program.

~The award comes as the Biden administration rushes to deal with an influx of migrants at the border, including more than 21,000 unaccompanied minors currently in government custody, according to the latest data.

Between the lines: Family Endeavors won the contract just months after it hired Andrew Lorenzen-Strait as its senior director for migrant services and federal affairs.

Therein lies the rub.

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait landed his job at Endeavors (formerly Family Endeavors) in January straight off the Biden transition team following a stint with one regional Lutheran refugee contractor, and a little over six months at LIRS, the national organization.

He had spent years in the federal government, at ICE in fact, before hitting on this likely lucrative gig.

A GOP Congressman wants answers.

From Fox News:

GOP lawmaker wants answers on massive border contract that went to nonprofit with ties to ex-Biden adviser

Republican Rep. Jim Banks is demanding answers from the head of the Administration for Children and Families after revelations that a nearly $530 million contract was awarded to a Texas nonprofit to help manage the influx of migrant children at the U.S. southern border — after the organization hired a former Biden transition official.

Andrew Lorenzen-Strait Senior Director for Migrant Services & Federal Affairs at Endeavors.

Axios first reported the contract, which is the largest ever awarded to the nonprofit, Family Endeavors, from the Department of Health and Human Services. The nonprofit also received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement worth $87 million.

Family Endeavors, according to the report, recently hired former Biden transition official Andrew Lorenzen-Strait to serve as senior director for Migrant Services and Federal Affairs. While working on the Biden transition team, Lorenzen-Strait reportedly vetted political appointees for HHS and worked on the DHS policy team.

Banks, R-Ind., in a letter obtained by Fox News directed to the acting assistant secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within HHS, JooYuen Chang, questioned the timing of the grants and whether they were related to Lorenzen-Strait’s work.

JooYuen Chang https://www.acf.hhs.gov/about/bio/jooyeun-chang

“The two unprecedented and massive grants Family Endeavors received were approved by HHS and DHS—the two agencies Lorenzen-Strait oversaw while a member of the Biden transition team,” Banks wrote. “And both grants were no-bid contracts, meaning they were awarded directly to Family Endeavors bypassing the normal competitive process.”

Banks went on to call the grant “especially concerning” due to Lorenzen-Strait’s responsibilities on the transition team, and said it was “probable” that he “played some role” in Chang’s appointment.

Banks went on to accuse Chang of having “played some role in awarding Lorenzen-Strait’s firm about a half a billion dollars.”

“Some may view this as a conflict of interest,” Banks wrote.

More here.

Visit USA Spending for the skinny on grants and contracts….

Just to give you an idea of the magnitude of this windfall for Endeavors, here is a screenshot from USA Spending of Endeavors previous federal funding and its huge payout (so far!) this year in the wake of Lorenzen-Straits arrival.

It almost makes you wonder if when Lorenzen-Strait came on board at Endeavors on January 25th, only a few days after the inauguration, that someone knew then that the rush on the border was about to be unleashed.

When I saw these mind-blowing numbers I had a good chuckle wondering why Lorenzen-Strait didn’t bring some of this payola to his pals at LIRS because LIRS is in the same business—getting the Unaccompanied Alien Children (aka New Americans) set up in America.

In 2018, Endeavors paid a top salary of around $300,000 in a year they raked in just over $40 million from American taxpayers. So, I can’t wait to see the salaries for this year with an anticipated half a billion coming in! Just saying!

Sure beats working for the likes of ICE. As I have said on many previous occasions: tell your kids to grow up to be execs at nonprofits funded by us—the taxpayers.