While much of the blame for America’s unprecedented border crisis falls at the feet of policies implemented by President Joe Biden, a network of government-funded, religiously-affiliated nonprofit organizations is spending massive sums of money to facilitate waves of illegal immigrants into the United States.
These groups, which present as religious groups, have cemented roles in the importation of millions of migrants into the United States. They encourage migration along the Central American route that leads to the U.S. border, then offer cash, as well as legal and resettlement services, to many of the more than 10 million people who’ve attempted to cross the border since Biden took office.
The NGOs, which on their face represent Jewish, Catholic, and protestant Christian faiths, rake in millions of taxpayer dollars as they create a pipeline from Central America to the Rio Grande and the Sonoran Desert — the doorstep of the United States. The conservative Heritage Foundation has called it a “corrupt money-changing circle,” in which taxpayers are funding “migration weaponization used against America’s interests.”
One of the groups that has received the most attention for its facilitation of illegal immigrants is the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, known more commonly as HIAS. Founded in 1881 to assist Jewish immigrants get to the United States who were fleeing persecution in Russia and Eastern Europe, the group now operates both in Central America and throughout the United States.
Putting the spotlight especially on HIAS is the fact that it counts Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who has overseen the border for the unprecedented surge of illegal immigration, as one of its previous board members. HIAS has routinely shown its support for the Biden administration official from the moment he was nominated — “he knows that America is at its greatest when we build bridges, not walls,” the group wrote in its endorsement of the pick. Regarding Mayorka’s impeachment, the group said it was “profoundly disappointed.”
HIAS, which boasted a revenue of $149 million in 2022, offers a wide range of services to migrants both before and after they enter the United States. It provides maps at their facilities to guide migrants through the treacherous Darien Gap, works with a number of partner organizations to resettle migrants once they arrive in America, and provides cash assistance once they’ve settled. The organization also openly advocates for the United States to increase its resettlement program.
The organization came under criticism after the Daily Signal revealed that flyers instructing migrants to “vote for Biden” were found at a facility on the Mexican side of the U.S. border. The facility described itself as “the home for HIAS, which is providing legal assistance and assistance with obtaining formal documents for job search and integration into the city of Matamoros as they wait to access the asylum process in the U.S.”
HIAS receives substantial funds from the federal government — it has received $248 million since 2021 in refugee aid grants from the State Department and the Administration for Children and Families under the Department of Health and Human Services. The organization’s CEO, Mark Hetfield, pulled in nearly $400,000 in compensation from HIAS in 2020, despite working less than 40 hours per week.
Catholic Charities USA, Church World Services, and Global Refuge, formerly called the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, are also among the religiously affiliated NGOs leveraging taxpayer dollars to facilitate the migration and resettlement of foreign nationals into the United States.
Catholic Charities USA received an astonishing $1.4 billion from the federal government in 2021. It reported a total of $4.7 billion in donations from all sources, though the entity and its funds are not solely focused on immigration issues. Immigration is, however, one of the main focuses of Catholic Charities USA, which specializes in resettlement services for new migrants.
The organization boasts that it resettled nearly 12,000 Afghans in 36 different states in 2021 alone.
Catholic Charities USA also provides legal assistance to those who are applying for asylum and has criticized America’s “broken system” for handling immigration, which it says subjects migrants to “indefinite imprisonment, separation of families, and denial of basic social services.”
A wide range of Catholic entities have called for amnesty for illegal immigrants in the United States as part of a broader “Justice for Immigrants Campaign,” which the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops endorses. The campaign, which was started in 2004, seeks “broad based legalization (permanent residency) of the undocumented of all nationalities” and “abandonment of the border ‘blockade’ enforcement strategy.”
Though the campaign began in 2004, Catholic Charities USA was one of the 18 signatories of a letter from the Justice for Immigrants campaign to Biden this year urging him to “protect longtime undocumented residents of American communities from needless removals.”
There’s also Church World Services (CWS), a broadly Christian organization with a revenue of $68 million in 2021, and Global Refugee, formerly the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, which both work to facilitate mass immigration into the United States.
CWS has advocated for a blanket amnesty for all of the millions of illegal immigrants currently present in the United States. The organization also tracks “state and federal policies that advance pro-refugee, pro-immigrant policies and neutralize harmful immigration proposals” and has 23 refugee and immigration offices across 17 different states to support its resettlement and legal services.
Global Refuge similarly provides resettlement services and also offers legal services, including assistance for those attempting to gain citizenship or have asylum claims approved.
The President of Global Refuge, Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, was previously the Policy Director for First Lady Michelle Obama, and a Senior Advisor for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. The organization’s revenue has spiked drastically under the Biden administration, an investigation from The Free Press found, pulling in $50 million in revenue in 2018 and a whopping $207 million in 2022. Of the 2022 sum, $180 million came from the government.
Organizations like HIAS, Catholic Charities USA, CWS, and Global Refuge collectively assist migrants as they are smuggled through Central America, welcome them once they arrive at the southern border of the United States, help them resettle throughout the rest of the country, and offer legal assistance to those who attempt to claim asylum by way of a system that is wracked with fraud.
The Biden administration has also given billions of dollars to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which in turn provides grants to NGOs involved in the resettlement process. Despite a massive increase in funding, The New York Times reported that ORR had lost contact with the sponsors of about 85,000 unaccompanied migrant children.
ORR also provides yet another example of how the NGOs often act as pipelines, taking those involved in resettlement and asylum processes and preparing them for powerful careers in government. ORR’s director Robin Dunn Marcos, for example, previously worked for two resettlement organizations that receive funding from ORR, the International Rescue Committee and the Church World Service.
The Biden administration and the NGOs that work alongside the federal government have presided over the worst border crisis in American history, with over 9.5 million nationwide encounters and 1.7 million estimated illegal immigrant gotaways being recorded during the Democrat’s term.
Now immigration has become a critical election year issue, with polls showing that voters are broadly critical of Biden’s performance on the issue, trust former President Donald Trump to handle the border more than they trust Biden, and are in favor of the former president’s plan to deport illegal immigrants en masse.