Texas’ refugee resettlement Kabuki theater

Are you following the kabuki theater over Texas’ withdraw from the refugee resettlement program? In one corner is Team Bill King/ Houston Chronicle and in the other corner is Team Governor Abbott/ Texas Tribune. It’s political grandstanding at its finest.

King, former City of Houston mayoral candidate— self-proclaimed Houston financial transparency advocate and condemner of Texans who don’t want  more of this, this and this to happen—aided by the Houston Chronicle and Governor Abbott, aided by the Texas Tribune, are not fooling Texas voters with their “Paso Doble-style” posturing and faux-boxing match over the latter’s toothless decision to withdraw from the nation’s refugee resettlement program.

High information voters know Abbott’s decision to withdraw from the program won’t stop the phony evangelical groups & their enablers in Washington, DC from getting their grubby little paws on more of YOUR tax money so they can continue to import cheap refugee labor to satisfy segments of Houston’s construction industry who prefer to destroy the American dream of American citizens by hiring uneducated, low-skilled, non-English speaking workers who will become NEW VOTERS.

And the fastest way to learn the truth that the shameless Texas media won’t tell you is to file a Texas Public Information Act Request and read their own words written by their own taxpayer money-grubbing paws.

Are Abbott & Houston’s immigration attorneys and King & the, ahem—evangelicals—really on opposing sides?

Meet the backers of Houston’s cheap refugee labor industry—and read about their plans as written in their own words:

• Interfaith Ministries of Greater Houston
• Stan Marek of Marek Brothers & board member of the Greater Houston Partnership
• Houston’s Immigration Attorney community

Interfaith Ministries of Houston

In his September 24^thop-ed Bill King disclosed the information I’ve been waiting months to publish. King wrote he served a two-year stint as chairman of Interfaith Ministries of Houston

“I served for just over a decade on the board of Interfaith Ministries of Houston, including a two-year stint as its chairman. Interfaith Ministries’ motto is “the strength of shared beliefs.” It promotes interfaith dialogue to demonstrate the commonality of many of the beliefs of many of the world’s great faith traditions.”

“It also performs service projects that exemplify those shared beliefs. One of its projects is a program that helps refugees, who the U.S. State Department has allowed to enter the country and who are relocating to Houston.”

What Mr. Financial Transparency didn’t tell you is this taxpayer money-grubbing non-profit was awarded a $2.3 MILLION contract to fund the day-to-day operations of their cheap refugee-labor importation program, including the payment of salaries in excess of $100,000 to the COO, CFO and Director of Human Resources.

Read the contract documents here.

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No wonder groups like Interfaith Ministries of Houston want more of your tax money—if the cheap refugee labor river stops flowing, the taxpayer money they get stops growing.

Stan Marek, board member of the Greater Houston Partnership

“The lead private sector partner is Stan Marek, CEO of the Marek Family of Companies, founded in 1938 and one of the largest construction firms in Houston.

Mr. Marek is a long-time supporter of the Collaborative and is committed to helping to develop a multi-sector plan.

As board member of the Greater Houston Partnership—Houston’s chamber of commerce—has committed to bring additional stakeholders from the private sector to the table.”

Nuff said. In their words, not mine.

Read the document here. houston-immigration-legal-services-collaborative

Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative

“The Collaborative brings together Houston’s best and brightest non-profit and legal minds to increase the capacity of immigration legal service providers that provide high-quality, low-cost services to immigrants; improve and streamline immigrants ability to access existing social and legal services; be a source of timely and accurate information for both stakeholder groups and potential clients of immigration service providers; and develop new funding sources for immigration service providers.”

Those are the words of representatives of the Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative as written in their letter of intent for Houston to become a “Welcoming City”–the taxpayer-provided moola would be used prepare a “customized research reports that highlights the economic and demographic impact of immigrants and refugees in Houston…as “there is little substantive research about immigrants power within our current economy.”

Read the letter of intent here. houston-immigration-legal-services-collaborative

Ha ha! Houston’s immigration lawyers need more of YOUR money to fund a study because THAT little gem destroys the ENTIRE narrative you’ve heard over and over again about how taxpayer money redistributed to other countries nationals benefit Houston’s economy!

And nowhere in that letter of intent is any mention of hiring unemployed American citizens.

The Borg that are Houston’s immigration attorneys also write their focus is to “increase voter registration among new citizens.”

See how that works?

In the “Welcoming City” that is Houston there’s no longer opaqueness about who the backers of the cheap refugee labor industry are. There finally is transparency of who is out to destroy the American dream of American citizens through taxpayer money-grubbing, phony evangelicals in partnership with Houston immigration attorneys and segments of Houston’s construction industry.

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