The Quote Below—More Misinformation from the Media
“For decades, Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations have played a crucial role helping federal authorities and local governments manage influxes of migrants. Their work has been funded with bipartisan support in Congress, even through the presidency of Donald J. Trump, who often vilified immigrants.
“But after President Biden took office in 2021 promising a more humane approach to migration, these faith-based groups have increasingly become the subjects of conspiracy theories and targets for far-right activists and Republican members of Congress, who accuse them of promoting an invasion to displace white Americans and engaging in child trafficking and migrant smuggling. The organizations say those claims are baseless. . . .
“In Congress and in state legislatures, some Republicans have lent legitimacy to the disinformation about the nonprofit groups by echoing it themselves.
“In April, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, berated Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security secretary, for his past service on the board of HIAS, a refugee resettlement agency formerly known as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society. She claimed that the group was “not only financing the invasion of the country, but also telling illegal aliens to vote in the United States elections.”
“Last year, Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin claimed during a House Judiciary Committee hearing that [NGOs] working on the border “are complicit in the greatest human trafficking operation perhaps in the history of the world. . . .”
“There is also a history of anti-immigration sentiment blurring into antisemitism. HIAS, for instance, was a target of antisemitic rants posted on social media by Robert Bowers, the gunman who attacked the Tree of Life synagogue in 2018 and killed 11 worshipers.
“Catholic Charities and other faith-based organizations have long run pantries and homeless shelters and have assisted migrants, seniors and others in need of care across the country.
“They have also become an integral part of many migrants’ first days in the United States. Once migrants families are released from federal custody, they are transported to shelters, where they typically stay one night. The organizations’ role in operating those shelters has made them into targets for people seeking to tap into the anxiety many Americans feel about the large numbers of migrants who have been crossing the border in recent years. , , ,” — Faith-Based Groups That Assist Immigrants Have Become Targets of Extremists, Miriam Jordan, The New York Times, 6/2/24 [Link]
Fact Check of Above Quote: Religious NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) that that some political leaders are questioning their activities on behalf of illegal migrants. Among other services, they provide these migrants after they cross the border with food, shelter, and transportation to other parts of the United States. Critics maintain that these activities facilitate illegal immigration and thereby encourage.it. The NGOs have responded with melodramatic outrage, claiming that these criticisms are an attack on their “faith.”’
That faith, they maintain, requires them to help the poor and downtrodden. Rarely, however, do they show any concern about the negative impact of illegal immigration on poor and downtrodden American citizens, with respect to wage suppression, and increased competition for jobs and public benefits. Nor do they seem too concerned about the injunction of biblical faith to respect the law. Lawlessness unchecked leads to anarchy, a situation where the poor and marginalized suffer more than anyone else. If the religious NGOs really want to help foreigners in need, they might consider helping them in their own countries, rather than abetting their often costly and dangerous journeys to the United States.
Another relevant point is that NGOs are largely funded by government grants. Two-thirds of the funding of Catholic Charities comes from government sources, i.e., the taxpayers, as does almost 60 percent for HIAS. It is interesting that these NGOs boast of their faith and charity when largely they practice these virtues with other people’s money, Also worth noting is that a state-subsided religious agenda is a violation of the separation of church and state. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is usually zealous about guarding this separation. In this case the ACLU is silent, no doubt because it is an ardent supporter of rights and privileges for illegal aliens.
As long as NGOs receive government money, public officials have the right, and indeed the duty, to oversee their activities and criticize them when appropriate. If the NGOs don’t like that, they should pay their own way.