By: James Simpson
Accuracy in Media

With reports that illegal immigrants bring the risk of Ebola and other viral illnesses, Association of American Physicians and Surgeons representative, Dr. Elizabeth Lee Vliet, has noted that, “Border Patrol sources repeatedly warn that we do not know who is coming across our southern borders, all the countries of origin, what diseases they may carry, or where they go after being released with a summons to appear months later in court.”

An investigation by the Accuracy in Media Center for Investigative Journalism shows that American religious groups, using federal money, are facilitating this growing crisis and trying to keep the media in the dark about the nature of the threat.

Importing Dangerous Diseases

As Dr. Vliet indicated, many illegals are bringing in diseases and parasites. They have been shipped around the country under a veil of secrecy. But word is getting out:

• A Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) facility in Artesia, New Mexico used to house illegals has been locked down following an outbreak of chicken pox.
• A week earlier the same facility found that 89 of its 603 detainees tested positive for tuberculosis, though none had contracted the disease.
• Reported infections among illegals include chicken pox, TB, swine flu, pneumonia, other respiratory illnesses and epidemics of scabies and lice.
• The deadly Chagas disease, formerly limited to Central and South America, is now spreading to the U.S. with an estimated 300,000 cases nationwide. Northern Virginia has been described as “ground zero” for the disease. Its vector, the kissing bug, has been found in Texas, Arizona and California.
• A DHS Office of Inspector General report states that border agents and their families are contracting the diseases and parasites brought in by illegals. A border agent and others in Texas have contracted TB.

On July 31, President Obama revised a Bush-era executive order allowing for apprehension, detention or conditional release of people with severe respiratory diseases. Was this a coincidence?

A leaked copy of an official Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confidential report was published on August 4th by Brandon Darby of Breitbart Texas. It reveals that, in addition to the flood of illegals from Central America, the border is being penetrated by tens of thousands of illegals from almost every country on the planet. The table below provides a sampling of apprehended Third Country Nationals (TCN) that should be of concern to security officials as well as all Americans.

Foreign Nationals Posing Highest National Security Risk
Apprehended at Southern Border – 2014
Military/Terrorism			Ebola-Infected
China	3,246		Nigeria	892
Iran	511		Liberia	41
Albania	363		Guinea	38
Syria	202		Sierra Leone	21
Iraq	199
Russia	195
Afghanistan	92
Yemen	38
Libya	16
Source: Customs and Border Protection

 

Most significantly, the official report records 100 apprehensions in 2014 of individuals from the Ebola outbreak countries of Liberia (41), Guinea (38), and Sierra Leone (21). Nigeria has only two confirmed and eight suspected Ebola cases—all health workers exposed to an American who died of the disease. However, 892 Nigerians have been apprehended at the border in 2014, and Nigeria made CBP’s “Top 5 TCNs” list for the week of July 14 through 20, with 28 apprehensions.

It seems clear that many Nigerians, perhaps in the emerging West African drug trade, continue to penetrate our borders. Thus, there is reason for genuine concern that infected individuals could be entering the country illegally, perhaps spreading the disease to other illegals they are traveling with. This poses an existential threat to border officials or anyone else who comes into contact with them.

Despite fears of an Ebola outbreak in the U.S., most health officials quoted in the news say that while Ebola is deadly, it is not spread easily, requiring direct contact with bodily fluids for infection to occur. American doctors, they say, would contain any outbreak quickly. Others however, cite the history of the various Ebola strains, and related hemorrhagic fevers like the Marburg virus, suggesting that they may be air-transmissible. Canada Free Press, for example, cited the Ebola-Reston outbreak. The CDC fact sheet on Ebola states:

Ebola-Reston appeared in a primate research facility in Virginia, where it may have been transmitted from monkey to monkey through the air. While all Ebola virus species have displayed the ability to be spread through airborne particles (aerosols) under research conditions, this type of spread has not been documented among humans in a real-world setting, such as a hospital or household.

In addition to the disease threat, illegal alien gangs, and drug and human traffickers are making increasingly brazen attacks on Border Patrol officials and others they come into contact with. Agents have reported being targeted by automatic weapons coming from the Mexican side of the border, up to and including .50-caliber gunfire. An off-duty Border Patrol agent was shot and killed, and his father wounded, by two Mexican illegals earlier this month. The Mexicans have been apprehended and face capital murder charges.

Unless and until President Obama takes his Constitutional duty to protect and defend our borders seriously, he, his administration, and his Capitol Hill allies are leaving our nation and its citizens open to every form of danger. The fact that an Ebola outbreak might not lead to a nationwide epidemic would be little consolation to those families who lost loved ones just because this President refuses to do his job.

Alien Children in Maryland

In the Washington, D.C. area, our investigation determined that two organizations in neighboring Maryland are getting millions of dollars to accommodate the illegals.

These are the Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service, headquartered in downtown Baltimore at 700 Light Street, and the Board of Child Care of the United Methodist Church, at 3300 Gaither Road in Milford Mill.

A third location has been proposed at the former Second Genesis Drug Treatment Facility, in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. However, the office of Prince George’s County Executive Rushern L. Baker III says the County was never contacted about it. William J. McCarthy, executive director of Catholic Charities of Baltimore, has expressed interest in housing 50 children at St. Vincent’s Villa in Timonium. A call to Catholic Charities confirmed that an HHS Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) grant application has been submitted.

LIRS received grants for the UAC program in 2014 totaling $18,762,362, but has been in the UAC business for a long time, netting $71,283,452 since 2003. A princely sum, but this is not all. LIRS provides many other related services for HHS, receiving a total of $232,699,914 since 1995. This is big business, and its fancy downtown headquarters proves it.

But in the world of illegal alien resettlement, even LIRS is small change. The two largest UAC grant recipients in 2014 were the Southwest Key program–an organization connected to Obama through the National Council of La Raza—and Baptist Child and Family Services. Southwest Key received over $122 million, and BCFS received a whopping $280 million!

LIRS has no facilities housing illegals in Maryland, however. Its most recent tax return lists 18 Lutheran facilities and four others nationwide receiving “Refugee Resettlement” grants. An additional 26 facilities received grants for “Children Services” and “Immigration Justice”—whatever that is. Multiple calls for further clarification to LIRS Public Relations Officer, Miji Bell, were not returned.

The Board of Childcare of the United Methodist Church (BOC) is a gated, fenced-in, multi-building complex at the end of a residential street in a quiet Baltimore County neighborhood. Until recently, it was exclusively a live-in facility for mentally disabled children, many with autism. There are accommodations for 59 youths, a school and recreational buildings on site. BOC also has a 16-bed facility on the Eastern Shore, a 50-bed facility in West Virginia, and 6 group homes in Maryland (4) and West Virginia (2) capable of housing a total of 28 youths.

The Board of Childcare is new to the UAC program this year, according to its president, Laurie Anne Spagnola. It received its first grant in June 2014 for $2,387,200, and, unlike LIRS, is housing UACs at its Baltimore facility. Latino youths were observed entering and exiting dorm buildings in groups, usually with a faculty member, as in the photo below. Approximately 15 were observed, although Ms. Spagnola intimated that there were none.

Ms. Spagnola requested all questions be submitted by email to be answered by HHS. The questions were as follows:

• How many UACs are housed at the facility? How long are they there for? There were males. Are there females too?
• BOC is a school for mentally disabled children who live at the facility. Autistic children are given to violent outbursts that can be easily provoked. Is it not a conflict of interest to co-locate youths from a different culture, who do not speak our language, who may have gang affiliations or other criminal history, and at best have no experience with the troubled children living at the facility?
• Is there not the potential for harm to the regular residents?
• Do the parents of residents know that illegal alien youths are being housed with them?
• Did parents get a chance to weigh in before the UACs came to the facility?

To date, HHS has not responded.

The blog Conservative Treehouse estimated that each child in the UAC program is budgeted to cost about $40,000. By that measure, LIRS has been provided with funds to manage 469 illegals while BOC can manage 60. Since no one BOC facility can handle that many with its current load of students, presumably they will be spread around the various facilities.

Making Illegals into Democrats

Throughout his presidency, Obama has aggressively sought amnesty for illegals. When an amnesty bill was not forthcoming from Congress, Obama began issuing directives to federal agencies that defied both federal law and the will of Congress. Deportations essentially ceased, and in 2013 over 36,000 criminal aliens, including 193 murderers, were released from jail. From 2012 to 2014, the number of illegals coming across the border turned into a flood.

In June 2012—without congressional authorization—President Obama created a program called Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Under DACA, illegals born after June 16, 1981 who arrived in the U.S. before their sixteenth birthday can obtain work permits and permission to remain in the U.S. two years, and reapply for an additional two years. Furthermore, DACA applicants:

• Must have continuously resided in the United States since June 15, 2007;
• Were present in the U.S. as of June 15, 2012 and when they applied for deferred action;
• Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a GED or have been honorably discharged from the military;
• Have not been convicted of certain criminal offenses;
• Were 30 years of age or younger as of June 15, 2012.

The problem is that if someone is here illegally, how does the government verify many of the answers to these questions? In practical terms, DACA allows pretty much any illegal alien approximately 30 years of age or younger to stay in the U.S. indefinitely.

In any event, illegals began streaming in following the creation of DACA. An Inspections and Customs Enforcement (ICE) document leaked to the press revealed a dramatic acceleration in the number of unaccompanied children coming from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, a part of Central America also called the “Northern Triangle.” In 2011, ICE apprehended a total of 4,321 UAC from these countries. By 2013, that number had increased to 21,314. For 2014, the report projected 53,375 UACs crossing the border and 95,500 in 2015. Some estimates are much higher.

Fewer than 30 percent of these “children” are between 10 and 14 years old. Half are males from 15 to 17 years old. Many are gang members, including the notorious MS-13. Ninety-eight percent are released from custody with a “notice to appear” in court for deportation hearings. They rarely do. In 2013, only 0.1 percent were returned to their home countries.

Both the White House and the press have claimed this mass influx is the result of extreme violence in their home countries. But the ICE document credited a variety of factors, including economics, crime, job prospects, encouragement from family members in the U.S. and the perception that illegals would not be sent home if caught. This last reason is likely key. There has always been violence, crime and economic hardship in those countries. And while it may have gotten worse in the past few years, only one thing has materially changed: the perception that America will welcome them.

Almost all recent UAC entrants are from Northern Triangle countries. A quirk in the law that allows for immediate deportation of illegal youths from Mexico takes much longer for those from “non-contiguous countries,” increasing their chances to obtain asylum.

In a recent WND interview with U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX), former Border Patrol agent Chris Cabrera, now Vice President of National Border Patrol Council Local 3307, said that unaccompanied children have been coached on how to game the system. “The ‘magic words’ are something along the lines of ‘asylum,’ or ‘political asylum’ or to say ‘fighting in my home country,’” he says. “They know these words…because we can’t send them home because it’s too dangerous back there.” He added, “Whether it’s the adults or the young kids, one thing we consistently hear is, ‘Obama will take care of us.’”

U.S. Senator Jim Inhofe (R-OK) confirmed this as well. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chuck Todd, Inhofe stated that through Obama’s DACA program, Obama is essentially telling them:

‘Come here, we’ll take care of you,’ and they all believe this… I talked to them individually… All of them were programmed to say that they had relatives here, they’re invited to come up here, they’re going to stay here—at the same time the HHS says, ‘We’re not going to send them back.’ So long as they have that assurance, more are coming in.

The New York Times recently made a compelling case for the argument that the Obama administration is indeed doing something to stem the border surge. The Times describes the Artesia, New Mexico detention facility—that same facility where rampant disease has broken out—as a site where “Homeland Security officials said the plan is for them to be held for no more than 10 days before being sent on flights back home.” This is not occurring however, because “Some migrants have refused to sign travel documents…after they insisted they would face harm at home.” Does our government require illegals’ permission to send them back?

But if the administration were really seeking to stem the flow, why are they trying to falsely reclassify illegals as “refugees,” even proposing expedited “refugee” processing in Honduras that will entirely eliminate the need for such people to shoot for the border? The New York Times long ago abandoned any shred of objectivity when it comes to protecting Obama. Perhaps in these centers, people really are being deported just to make it look real. Since no one is allowed access, and Border agents are under a gag order, we can only take the Times’ questionable word for it. But there is no indication from the border that this message is getting through. All estimates point to more illegals flooding the border. In July, the Obama administration raised its 2014 forecast of UACs to 90,000, up from January’s estimate of 60-65,000. For 2015, the estimate has been revised up to 145,000.

Welfare for Illegals

Judicial Watch discovered through FOIA requests that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has been aggressively promoting its food stamp program to illegals through the Mexican Consulate. Even as far back as 2006, American taxpayers financed television ads featuring the Mexican Consul urging illegals to sign up. In a 2012 letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak, U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) wrote, “It defies rational thinking, for the United States—now dangerously $16 trillion in debt—to partner with foreign governments to help us place more foreign nationals on American welfare…”

Illegal youths are also being offered “family planning services” by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This is a slap in the face to those concerned about the key issues of abortion and illegal immigration. In an HHS press release, the agency states:

Residential care providers are required to provide or arrange for the program required services in a manner that is sensitive to the age, culture, religion, dietary needs, native language, sexual orientation, gender identity, and other important individual needs of each UAC. All services and assessments are required to be administered for all UAC even if they are in ORR [Office of Refugee Resettlement] custody for a short period of time. Residential care providers are required to have the capacity to provide services in the language of the majority of UAC in their facility speak.

Eric Holder’s Justice Department has promised legal assistance to underage illegals. Holder calls it “taking a historic step to strengthen our justice system and protect the rights of the most vulnerable members of society.” But it is plain his plan will do just the opposite. In addition to subverting the rule-of-law, such programs will further encourage illegals to come to the U.S.

As of March 2014, the latest data available, 642,685 aliens had been accepted for DACA status. These people have not been idle. A June 2014 survey of DACA participants conducted by the American Immigration Council yielded the following results:

DACA Participants First Two Years
Found New Job		59%
Obtained Driver’s License		57%
Opened Bank Account		49%
Obtained 1st Credit Card		33%
Obtained Health Care		21%
Source: American Immigration Council

These are not children. Children do not obtain driver’s licenses, jobs, credit cards, etc., and because of Motor Voter, many of those receiving driver’s licenses may now be registered to vote. While under DACA, legal status is only temporary and the aliens cannot vote legally, but some might vote anyway, as illegals in many states already have.

Democrats are keeping up the pressure, hoping to pass some kind of amnesty legislation. Activists have been aggressively working to entrench illegals into communities nationwide. It will be that much harder to dislodge them if that time ever comes. Meanwhile, activists lobby for more benefits, and build momentum for amnesty.

Indeed, the American Immigration Council urges DACA participants to reapply, now that the program is two years old, and laments that “90 percent said that someone in their family would benefit [from amnesty]. “Immigration is a family affair,” they write, “and providing relief to family members is critical to the success of DACAmented young adults.”[1] So having obtained a reprieve for younger illegals, these activists build a chorus for letting them all stay.

Indeed, the media focus on unaccompanied children is a bald deception. Most are not unaccompanied, coming with one or both parents, or as part of an entire family. Along with the 50,000 plus illegal unaccompanied youths caught coming across the border, so far in 2014 there have been another 240,000 of all ages. And these were only the ones who were caught. Estimates of those evading capture range from 30% to 90% of the total.[2] That would mean that in 2014 alone, somewhere between an additional 120,000 to 2.6 million got through.

With the overt assistance of the Obama administration, the left is replicating on a much larger scale what they accomplished in the 1980s, when one fifth of El Salvador’s population—over 1.1 million people—emigrated illegally to the U.S. In that earlier case, the left, in league with the liberation theology[3] arm of the Catholic Church, established a form of underground railroad that terminated in “sanctuary churches” throughout the U.S.

Some 262,000 Salvadorans settled in the Washington, D.C. area, and now represent 32.4 percent of the local Hispanic population, proportionally more than anywhere else in the country. They brought with them large numbers of the ultraviolent Salvadoran gang, MS-13. AIM discussed this history in the special report, CASA de Maryland, the Illegal’s ACORN.

This most recent diaspora has also been assisted by some of the same religious groups, but it is a different world today. Whereas in the 1980s these groups operated in defiance of U.S. policy, today they are federal government contractors. And it is big business. The Unaccompanied Alien Children Program (UAC) has been around for decades.

Responsibility was shifted from INS to the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement in 2003. Since then HHS has spent almost $1.9 billion on its UAC program. The chart below shows annual spending growth. What was once a modest program of a few million a year has grown exponentially since 2011. A total of $671.3 million has been spent so far this year, more than double the 2013 level.

Another thing is clear from this chart. These 2014 awards were not made last week. Organizations must apply, fill out extensive paperwork and wait for a response. Agencies knew well in advance that this flood of illegals was on the way. Indeed, the UAC program projected 65,000 minors for 2014, and sent out requests for proposals in January in anticipation.

Republicans claim that illegals are being shipped disproportionately to GOP states. This is apparently true, based both on actual sites currently in operation and those under consideration. The table below was taken from information compiled by Numbers USA and published on Google Maps on July 31, 2014. Texas is currently hosting illegals in 42 facilities with an additional 12 under consideration—by far the most of any state. Together, Texas and Arizona have more facilities than all the Democrat-controlled states put together. However, those states are ground zero for illegal border crossers.

These are temporary facilities. According to HHS, between January 1 and July 7, 2014, 30,340 minors had been placed in foster homes throughout all 50 states, Washington, DC and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as shown in the table below. These placements were made without the various state governments’ knowledge or consent.

To serve Obama’s agenda, unaccompanied illegal children have been encouraged to embark on a long, dangerous journey to the border, subject to every form of predation. Once they are here, Border Patrol agents report that MS-13 and other violent gangs are actually infiltrating border facilities to “recruit, enlist and pressure” unaccompanied youths into gang membership.

The national media have been running almost constant interference for Obama on the border crisis, hyping the “for the children” angle, and studiously overlooking the hundreds of thousands of adults that are crossing with them. Now confronted with irrefutable evidence of MS-13 gang activity among the illegals, The Washington Post claims it’s better to keep them here! The paper claims that deporting them only makes the problem worse in the long run.

Obama’s solution to the manufactured crisis on the border is to grant these illegals “refugee” status. In so doing they instantly become legalized. In a recent meeting with leaders of the Northern Triangle countries, Obama proposed an expedited process whereby Honduran “refugees” could skip the dangerous trip through Mexico and be brought directly to the U.S. at taxpayer expense.

Barely able to contain his glee, U.S. Representative Luis Gutiérrez (D-IL), stated in a July 25 interview on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that “We are going to sit down and we’re going to negotiate additional terms and avenues the President can use and prosecutorial discretion, and I think we can get three or four or maybe even five million people [legalized by executive order].”

Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) countered that President Obama has no power to declare amnesty for illegals, and that Congress needs to bar the President from spending any money on amnesty proposals. “This goes to the very core of law,” Sessions told Breitbart News. He added, “… if the President does such a thing, there is no moral authority to enforce any law in the future and all of our laws will be weakened.” Sessions called for a “public refutation” of Obama’s orders that are “plainly and utterly unlawful and unconstitutional.”

Before their summer recess, the House of Representatives hammered out a bill that would end DACA. A very weak bill proposed earlier with the support of House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) was vigorously opposed by conservatives, who demanded that the legislation would include language that would end DACA. While this new proposal is much better, the Democrat-controlled Senate left town for their summer break without glancing at it. Passing any legislation with teeth will have to await the November elections and, hopefully a new, less corrupt Senate.

In the meantime, Dr. Vliet reports that the Centers for Disease Control is quietly setting up Ebola Quarantine Centers in 20 cities across the USA. This is the same CDC, she notes, which has recently been under fire for mishandling deadly pathogens, including smallpox and anthrax.

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[1] Note that this DC-based non-profit misapplies the word “immigrant” to include illegal aliens. According to Webster’s dictionary, “immigrant” is defined as “a person who comes to a country to take up permanent residence.” An “alien,” on the other hand, whether legal or illegal, is a person “relating, belonging, or owing allegiance to another country or government.” A resident alien can be considered an immigrant because the term describes a person who has established legal residency. An illegal alien is not an immigrant because his or her residency plans cannot be defined. He/she is breaking the law and thus cannot confidently claim residency. An illegal alien is simply an individual from a foreign country who is in the U.S. illegally.

[2] Frederick County, MD Sheriff Chuck Jenkins and others made a fact-finding tour to McAllen, Texas to witness the illegal alien crisis first-hand and speak with border officials in July. According to Sheriff Jenkins, the Border Patrol claims it has captured about 70 percent of border crossers this year. However, former Border Patrol supervisory agent Zach Taylor has said that the Border Patrol is only catching about 10 percent of the illegals.

[3] Liberation Theology is Marxism applied to the Catholic religion. It was first described with that name by Peruvian Catholic Priest, Gustavo Gutiérrez, who wrote a book promoting it, titled, A Theology of Liberation: History, Politics, Salvation.

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NOTE: See this article with expanded information at Examiner.com