Report says two Minnesota nonprofits received at least $62 million for Somali refugee resettlement
Rights & JusticeWell-covered
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The Facts
- Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services received at least $62 million in government funding tied to Somali resettlement in Minnesota.
- The funding was linked to government contracts or grants for refugee resettlement services.
- Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services were involved in building Minnesota's Somali community through resettlement work.
- One report said the two groups received the money since 1993 to assist roughly 29,000 Somalis.
- Catholic Charities Twin Cities closed its refugee and immigrant programs in 2018.
- Parker Thayer said Minneapolis resettlement programs receive hundreds of millions of dollars in total.
Context
Which organizations are involved?
The reports identify Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services of Minnesota, which has recently rebranded as Global Refuge. NY Post Breitbart
What services did the funding support?
One report said the money supported housing, food and other assistance for Somali arrivals; other reports describe the funding as tied to refugee-resettlement contracts and grants. NY Post Conservative News T…
What remains unclear from the reports?
The excerpts report funding totals and resettlement activity but do not provide independent evidence establishing claims that the nonprofits caused Minnesota fraud cases or political outcomes. NY Post Objectivist
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- Neither framing disputes that $62 million in government contracts paid Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services to resettle roughly 29,000 Somalis since 1993, nor alleges misuse of the funds.
- Where Left and Right split
- The left and the right split on whether $62 million needs proof of misspending or proof of consent.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is one of values: whether contracted resettlement spending is a neutral public service or an illegitimate reshaping of a community's religious character, a disagreement no funding total can settle.
How left and right read it
Paying established charities to do refugee resettlement is exactly what public money is for, and a dollar figure is not an accusation. Spread across roughly 29,000 people resettled since 1993, the $62 million paid to Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services under government contracts describes decades of ordinary contracted work, not a scandal. So the burden belongs to whoever is implying otherwise: what specifically was misspent?
No community votes on being remade. Yet $62 million in government contracts since 1993 paid Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services to settle roughly 29,000 Somalis there — with Minneapolis resettlement running into the hundreds of millions, by Parker Thayer's count — because the scale was set by contract, not by the residents. Faith institutions should not be paid to reshape the religious character of their own communities.
“But now they work to push Muslims into the U.S. and other western nations, importing a religious Reich that would sooner see Catholicism and Lutheranism destroyed.” — Breitbart
$62 million paid two charities to resettle 29,000 Somalis. The fight is over whether that number needs evidence of harm or proof of consent.
The receipts — 7 sources
Independent coverage (7)
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