Knowledge is Power: A Series on Refugee Resettlement

... I’m going to provide a tutorial of sorts to help readers become more knowledgeable about the USRAP (that is the acronym for US Refugee Admissions Program), largely driven by the nine federal refugee contractors*** often referred to as VOLAGs (hilariously that stands for Voluntary Agencies).

That acronym VOLAG has fallen out of favor since Trump took office, but you will see it mentioned often in the media and elsewhere.

The nine contractors (the VOLAGs) monopolize the program that was created in 1979 by leading Democrats in the Senate (including Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden) and the Refugee Act of 1980 became law when President Jimmy Carter signed it.

Working under the nine are subcontractors in most states which get their marching orders, their refugees, and their federal MONEY as it is passed from the middle men (the nine major contractors) who take their cut before passing some of their (your) money to their local ‘affiliates’ (their word for subcontractors). See recent map of contractor affiliates....

First, and foremost you need to understand that refugees being admitted through the USRAP are LEGAL immigrants. If you talk about refugees brought in under this program as Illegals you are showing ignorance and will be discredited.

That said, know that our US system of admitting LEGAL immigrants is in very bad shape and the USRAP is one such program that in my opinion should be repealed (replaced if there is enough support for that in Congress). I don’t think that Ted, Joe and Jimmy had conservative America’s best interests at heart when they set up the system four decades ago....

You have a State Refugee Coordinator.

That person is supposed to be the central point for information to flow from and between the contractors, the state government, the federal offices (both at the State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in Health and Human Services), and presumably you—the citizens!

If you are seriously interested in learning enough to become an important voice where you live, start by calling your state refugee coordinator. Go here to see who to call in your state....

Now that (if) you have the information, what do you do with it?

I have said this until my head wants to explode! You must write a website or blog for your state [for example, CAIRCO], or find an existing one that would like to post the information you are learning....

And, finally I am going to say this at the end of each of my ‘Knowledge is Power’ lessons—your first priority if you care about immigration and its impact on the future of America is to get involved to re-elect Donald Trump....

I continue to argue that these nine contractors are the heart of America’s Open Borders movement and thus there can never be long-lasting reform of US immigration policy when these nine un-elected phony non-profits are paid by the taxpayers to work as community organizers pushing an open borders agenda.

    Church World Service (CWS)
    Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)
    Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM)
    Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS)
    International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
    US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular)
    Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS)
    United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)
    World Relief Corporation (WR)