Ann Corcoran, Frauds, Crooks and Criminals, January 26, 2019

This (below) is the news today that prompted me to check in with the financial doings of Church World Service (one of nine federal refugee contractors that the Trump Administration continues to support).

What I found is that their ‘take’ of your money has increased almost $20 million in just a couple of years.

In the most recent Form 990 available (filed June 30, 2017) they were awarded $68 million from the US Treasury, up from $50 million just two years earlier.

First here is the story from ReliefWeb that got my attention:

Note their continued use of the word “refugee.”

None of those crossing the US border illegally are refugees. They won’t be refugees until they apply for and go through an asylum process and it is determined that they would be persecuted if returned home. And, that is, if they ever show up for their asylum hearing!

New York City– Church World Service today announced the launch of the CWS Resource Call Center to connect refugee families after they are released from immigration detention with support for their onward journeys. The call center, which will be available to asylum-seekers, asylees and refugees, is an ecumenical effort that will connect callers to CWS affiliate offices, CWS member congregations, and Sanctuary Churches in the communities they are traveling to who can provide local support through housing, resource sharing and friendship.

Doing well by doing good (on your tax dollars)! The good Reverend pulls down a compensation package of over $345,000 annually (see below) as head honcho of CWS.

CWS has partnered with a network of migrant shelters along the U.S. southern border to provide the 1-800 number to asylum seekers who are preparing to travel to a secondary destination.

“We have heard the cries of families seeking safety at the border and watched in horror as the administration has tried to deny them their legal right to seek safety.

These families should be welcomed with the compassion and generosity that is the cornerstone of American values and Christian faith. With this new call center, people of faith around the country are stepping up to welcome asylum seekers into their communities and provide the assistance they need to start over,” said CWS President & CEO Rev. John L. McCullough.

[….]

The call center will also link people interested in providing support to asylum seekers by strategically connecting them to border shelters and receiving communities. Interested supporters can contact the call center by emailing [email protected]

More here and to access their hot links.

Click here to see Church World Service’s partner churches. Is yours one of them?

Some facts you need to see.

When I saw this story I first had a look at ProPublica which has a Non-Profit Explorer service so reporters and the public can ostensibly get the facts. This is a screen shot of recent data on Church World Service.

[Click on this and other graphics to enlarge them.]

See the $93 million in contributions! The average citizen or lazy biased reporter is going to assume they received all of that money from generous church goers, private citizens, and private companies and charities, right!

Now below is what CWS and ProPublica don’t want you to see.

This is a page from the most recent Form 990 which breaks out the GOVERNMENT (taxpayer) gifts to CWS.

Add the $68+ million in government grants to the $24+ million they raised privately and it comes to the $93 million that ProPublica wants everyone to think they raised from the generosity of good church people.

Now have a look at how their government grants had bumped up from two years before.

Notice that their private contributions haven’t changed much except that they were a bit higher in this earlier year.

And, just so you know I’m telling the truth about the Reverend’s whopping salary, this is from that most recent Form 990 I linked above.

Nice work if you can get it! Forty hour work week=about $166 an hour.

Charity Navigator has CWS at about 74% federally funded while they work hard to distribute illegal border-crossers to far-flung US towns and cities.

You will never see this news in the media anywhere but here, and the unfairness of this scam should infuriate you!