Recently, Kristi Noem, the former Governor of South Dakota who now serves as the Secretary of Homeland Security, announced that “the department has stopped all grant funding to nonprofits that operate outside of government control.” The reason? “[S]ome non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which receive millions in federal grants, have been facilitating illegal immigration by helping aliens cross the U.S. border.”
While appearing as a guest on Fox News, Noem stated that “[m]any of these NGOs actually have infrastructure and operations set up in Mexico, on that side of the border, and are telling those illegal immigrants to come to them, and they will get them across the border…they’re not just operating in the United States, they’re operating outside the United States to help make it easier for those who want to break our laws.”
What exactly are non-governmental organizations? Simply put, an NGO is ” a nonprofit organization that operates independently of any government, typically one whose purpose is to address a social or political issue.”
According to the State Department, “[f]rom the earliest days of U.S. history, civil society organizations have played a key role in protecting human rights and advancing human progress… [a]pproximately 1.5 million NGOs operate in the United States. These NGOs undertake a wide array of activities, including political advocacy on issues such as foreign policy, elections, the environment, healthcare, women’s rights, economic development, and many other issues…Many NGOs in the United States operate in fields that are not related to politics. These include volunteer organizations rooted in shared religious faith, labor unions, groups that help vulnerable people, such as the poor or disabled, and groups that seek to empower youth or marginalized populations.”
As wonderful as these activities are, why would the federal government be involved in providing funding for groups that “empower youth” and “marginalized populations?” The State Department claims the grant money is provided “[t]o fill gaps in programming, the Bureau also supports NGOs that provide relief services overseas. Many of these groups have expertise in a specific region and/or a particular service.”
In other words, these NGOs provide services the government is unable to provide.
The Government Accountability Office reports that NGO’s have received approximately 8 billion dollars in federal funds between 2022 and 2024. Further, as described by the Philanthropy Roundtable, “[t]oday about 170 social service efforts across the U.S. are supported by Catholic Charities… about two thirds of Catholic Charities’ annual spending comes from government sources (more than half a billion dollars of federal grants alone).” https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/almanac/catholic-charities/
In 2022, we discussed the efforts made by NGO’s like Catholic Charities to provide assistance to “refugees.” We quoted directly from the website for Catholic Charities USA , which states that “[i]n addition to providing essential services to immigrants and refugees to the U.S. [the group] also advocate(s) for policies that protect family unity and allow newcomers to contribute to and more fully participate in their new communities…Migrants are an especially vulnerable population cared for by Catholic Charities staff and volunteers because they are on the move, far from home, and strangers in a strange land. After being processed by federal authorities, they arrive at our sites weary from their travels…Catholic Charities serves migrants and refugees along the border and throughout the U.S. interior by providing for basic humanitarian needs such as food, shelter and clothing; assisting families with social work case management; providing asylum-seekers with immigration legal assistance; and resettling refugees from all corners of the world.”
In fact, as far back as 2020 we made this observation: “For years, the Catholic Charities organizations of various states have been involved in placing immigrants in communities across the United States. To be fair, Catholic Charities is not the only religion-based organization engaged in this work – Lutheran Social Services and Baptist Child and Family Services are also deeply involved in Refugee Resettlement. In 2018, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops received $28 million to help resettle refugees. These funds are spread across awards entitled ‘Refugee Cash and Medical Assistance,’ ‘Residential Service for Unaccompanied Children,’ and ‘Refugee Social Services.’ Lutheran Social Services also received $28 million, and Baptist Child and Family Services received $127 million (spread among several Baptist groups under the umbrella of Baptist Child and Family Services.”
In that same article from 2020, we also described the impact these efforts at refugee resettlement have had in the State of North Dakota. “[I]n December of 2015, ‘over the past 14 years, Lutheran Social Services has resettled 4,000 refugees from 35 countries in North Dakota.’ Each refugee receives a federal grant of $925 dollars for initial housing costs, however, if you multiplied that cost by 445 immigrants estimated to be resettled in 2016, “that would lead to a cost of $423,650 for fiscal year 2016 to resettle New Americans. (Note – I came up with $411,625 when I did the math.) Also, with the brunt of the resettlement program here in Cass County, social services estimates that about 15% of its budget goes toward serving refugees. Their 2014 budget was more than $14,132,517, which means just over $2.1 Million was spent serving the refugee population of Cass County.’”
Judge Wilson’s (ret.) article concludes tomorrow
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