The following post by Forrest Robinson has been republished in part with the permission of the author and IM–1776. To read the full post or other articles from IM–1776, click here.
In 2019, Portland, Maine was overrun with hundreds of migrants from Central Africa. All of them had traveled along the “underground railroad” of migrant safe houses that extends from Central America through Mexico, and into the United States. Once they arrived in America, Catholic Charities Maine assisted in sending hundreds of the Angolans and Congolese migrants from San Antonio to Portland, paying for their bus fare and providing specific instructions on what to do and where to go to claim benefits. Two local Mainers, David Pippin and Ashley Livingston, together with their children age five and three, were kicked out of a homeless shelter to make room for migrants and forced to pitch a tent to keep a roof over their heads.
According to a State Department report, from 2005 to 2014 the United States spent $96.6 billion on refugees, and $126 billion including the cost of the refugees’ spouses and children. The bill however only accounts for the programs managed by the US Department of Health of Human Services, or HHS. As Neil Munro writes, “It excludes additional taxpayer spending via state programs, as well as federal spending on Social Security, education, and housing programs, plus tax credits.” It also excluded the money spent by the vast and interconnected network of organizations, NGOs, MFIs (microfinance institutions), and religious bodies like Catholic Charities Maine (CCM).
CCM is one of many religious organizations that, as the Heritage Foundation observes, works with the government and NGOs to help move refugees into Maine. CCM also provided legal services to the migrants, including arranging immigration attorneys to help with asylum claims and deportation defense. Another organization is the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD), the national anti-poverty and social justice program of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. USCCB was founded in Chicago in 1969 with the help of radical organizer Saul Alinsky, for the purpose of funding his Industrial Areas Foundation. (Interestingly, it was this foundation that trained a young Barack Obama in “community organizing.”)
Alinsky’s writings shed light on the political strategies that are guiding the Left’s march through the institutions. As David Horowitz writes in Shadow Party, “Alinsky observed that radicals could achieve revolutionary change without majority support if they understood and exploited the rules of the game.” One way to do this is by infiltrating institutions with deep roots in communities — churches, unions, ethnic organizations and so on. These groups then work with federal agencies to circumvent the law whenever it is not in their favor.
This is what’s happening throughout the US right now, especially in Maine. In 2016, Maine’s former Governor Paul Lepage announced that he would be withdrawing the state from a refugee resettlement program. Nevertheless, refugees kept arriving. How? Once again, through Catholic Charities Maine, which helped resettle at least 600 migrants following Lepage’s announcement. CCM reported a revenue of $27.7 million from 2016-2017 — with a majority of its money ($14.2 million) coming from government payments, and $6.9 million from Medicaid. Altogether, “The Church and related Catholic charities and schools have collected more than $1.6 billion since 2012 in US contracts and grants.”
Another member of the shadow party that is changing the demographics of Maine from the inside out is current Governor Janet Mills. In June of 2018, Donald Giusti, a white man, was murdered in a racially-motivated attack by a gang of Somalis at Kennedy Park in Lewiston. (The Mayor of Lewiston, Shane Bouchard, says that these types of incidents are common at Kennedy Park. A local mom, for example, recorded a video of a mob of Somali teens and kids with bats and other weapons attacking two non-Somalis.) Yet when Mills, then-Attorney General, led a rally in Kennedy Park in 2019 called “Standing Up Against Hate,” she condemned Islamophobia and not the racism of the Somalis who killed Giusti. During her time as AG, Mills repeatedly declined to persecute and slow-walked investigations of migrants in Lewiston accused of violent crimes.
In 1980 there were 640 Somalis in the whole of the United States. Now there are at minimum 6,000 in Maine alone, 3,500 of which in Lewiston. Ann Corcoran, editor of the Refugee Resettlement Watch, explains the process by which refugees are resettled in America: “The US State Department brings in the refugees that the UN has largely chosen for us, and Homeland Security are supposed to screen them. Then, [refugees] are divided up between nine major contractors (VOLAGS) that include groups such as the US Conference of Catholic Bishops, World Lutheran Service, and Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. There are six of them that are supposedly religious charities […] funded by US taxpayers.” These contractors divide up their allotment of refugees among 350 subcontractors in 190 American cities.
Refugee settlement in the US is big business, especially for religious charities…
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