March 25, 2025 • 20 mins
A large number of large payments went out from the Biden Administration after the election to NGOs like Lutheran Family Services. LFS of Nebraska was one recipient, raising questions from Elon Musk and DOGE, which cut off payments. I talk about this with LFS-NE CEO Chris Tonniges.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Scott vorgiez right now, we welcome into the program, president
and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. It was
just after the election of twenty twenty four and the
Biden administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services,
before RFK Junior got to the HELM, it started directing
(00:21):
a bunch of payments to various Lutheran Family services group
across the country, and about three point three million dollars
of that money came here to Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska.
It caught the attention of former National Security or former
retired Army General Michael Flynn, who had served in the
(00:43):
first Trump administration for a minute or so, and General
Flynn said, now it's the Lutheran Faith and Lutheran Family
Services and affiliated organizations received massive amounts of taxpayer dollars.
The numbers speak for themselves. These funds total billions of
American taxpayer dollars, and he says, many more organizations are
(01:07):
cashing in on our hard earned money. These entities are
receiving large sums which raise serious questions about how taxpayer
funds are being spent and who is benefiting. Caught the
attention of Doze leader Elon Musk, who apparently had stopped
these payments. So Chris Tonages is the president and CEO
(01:28):
of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. Chris, I appreciate you
coming in at this timing, Scott. That's all that we
learned just weeks ago. It was about a month and
a half or so ago. Then all this started bubbling
up on x slash Twitter. What's the latest on this?
So the latest is there's been several court cases by
(01:51):
affiliate organizations that are tied to the greater Lutheran Services
in America organization. A lot of US do refugee resettlement.
We're all interconnected, but independent agencies of one another. There's
been a couple court cases that have talked about the
fact that a lot of what you referenced in the
(02:13):
ex posts was tied to contracts, not necessarily grants or
money that's just flowing out the door, but rather contracts
to do this work. And with that stop work order
that happened also stopped the payments for the work that
we had done over the course of the last several months.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So we've gotten to the point where we had roughly
about two and a half million dollars worth of work
and expenses associated with the programs that we do at
LFS that had yet to be paid.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And listening to the stories and talking with some of
the people involved in some of these NGOs, these non
governmental organizations, it seems like there are so many people
at the ground level of these organizations doing really great
humanitarian work and and they count on the money coming
in to be able to continue that work somehow. In
(03:07):
the administrative levels, above national levels and so forth, there
are some people that seemingly took advantage of this situation,
and there are some groups that some of the allegations
out there are just crazy. What can you tell me
about the structure of Lutheran Family Services and how the
(03:27):
money comes from tax beyers through the federal government to
help you guys with resettling of refugees.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, it's an interesting structure, Scott. There's nine volaggs as
we call them, or nine agencies at the federal level
that work with the federal government on basically providing a
framework and a network of agencies like Lutheran Family Services
to do the work at the local level. And so
(03:54):
are some of our contracts are directly with the federal government,
which is referenced in the post. Some of our contracts
are directly with those voluntary organizations of nine, we currently
work with two of them, and then we ask for
reimbursement from those nine organizations for the work that's been
(04:15):
done and the expenses that have been incurred.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And looking here at what Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska does,
I was amazed at the number six thousand refugees in
the about three and a half years or so during
the Biden administration. Six thousand refugees. This is just in Nebraska.
I don't know if any communities that are saying, we
have so much money and resources here, please bring people
(04:41):
in here who have next to nothing and put them
in our communities and we can take great care of them.
So I'm guessing that the money goes towards helping this situation.
What can you tell me about these six thousand refugees
during the Biden administration who came to Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yes, the way that the program structured is set up
as a ninety eight program where it's all built on
pathway to self sufficient self sufficiency for those family units,
and so at its core, it's an employment based program
that's really structured on getting individuals out of refugee camps.
Most of them helped or worked with our government in
(05:17):
some way shape or form over the course of the
last couple of years, a lot of them being from
Afghanistan in Iraq, and they supported our military in those
two conflicts. And once they get here, our staff works
with them over a ninety day timeframe to get in
an apartment set up, to get all of their employment
documentation put in place, get the kids involved in school,
(05:38):
you know, essentially kind of set them up for success,
and then within that ninety days they're in essence supposed
to have a full gainful employment and on that pathway
to self sufficiency.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What happens if they're not.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If they're not, then there's other resources that we have
there might be, and we're seeing that today where there's
layers in the employment paperwork that are coming in for
some of these individuals that we've resettled in December and January,
and so we use private funded donor dollars to offset
some of that expense associated with getting those individuals transitioned
(06:15):
into that pathway to permanency.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
There are so many communities that have you know, we
have all these people that we need we need people
to do these jobs and so forth, and there it
seems like there are still all these communities that say
we have all these jobs available, and so so if
we have people come in here by the thousands into
our communities, why are there still jobs available?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
How does how does? How is it that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
There will be people who want to work. We're not
talking about, you know, bringing people out of you know,
jails and mental institutions and so forth, and here you're
talking about people who have helped in some cases our military.
How is it that that these people wouldn't find gainful
employment and try and wean themselves off of what the
tax payers are providing within ninety days.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, so they do. A lot of the delay really
is centered around the paperwork that's associated with So when
they get here, they've got all of their paperwork ready
to go to apply for their employment documentation. Sometimes there's delays.
It could be that they get stuck in a pile
at a desk somewhere in order to get approval. It
(07:25):
could be that there's a piece of paperwork, or they've
got to also do medical well being checks, So it
could be just a scheduling delay and getting some of
those things done to check them off the list in
order for them to get employment. But you bring up
a great point, Scott, about one in every three individuals
that we resettle is ready willing and able to work.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
What happens to the other two. Yeah, So they're family units.
A lot of them are kids. So when we resettle individuals,
it's oftentimes a family unit of four or more, but
we also resettle a lot of single individuals as well.
Talking here with the president and CEO of Lutheran Family
(08:07):
Services of Nebraska, Chris tanagis with us here on news
radio eleven ten kfab. So the allegation here from General Flynn,
who formerly worked in the Trump administration, and then this
has seemed to be supported by Elon Musk of DOGE,
is that there is some call it money laundering going on.
And suddenly people say, well, this person who works with
(08:28):
Lutheran Family Services National Organization, worked in the Obama administration,
worked with the former First Lady Michelle Obama, and now
she gets there, he gets this cushy job with all
this money and so forth, and this money's not going
towards the refugees that you're talking about. Can talk to
me about this allegation here on behalf of some of
these people associated with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, I don't quite understand exactly where the money laundering
component comes to this particular work, in large part because
of the fact that we have to show that we've
resettled individuals, and we also have to show the expenses
that are associated with this work in order to get reimbursement.
There's a component of those contracts that go to cover overhead.
(09:12):
So like our facilities, we have vans that we provide
transportation back and forth to these appointments to make sure
that they're meeting all of their requirements. And some of
those contracts offer some additional support for a lot of
that work, but it isn't like there's a bunch of
extra fluff associated with that. We have to submit budgets
ahead of time and then we have to meet milestones
(09:34):
along the way in order to get that reimbursement back
from that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
What would you say to the idea of many American
taxpayers who say, we're trying to make ends meet in
our own communities and our own families, and we've had
a lot of our taxpayer dollars go towards wars and
areas like Iraq, like Afghanistan to train and make life
better for the people who live there. Unfortunately that didn't
work out so well in Afghanistan. But they say, look,
(10:00):
I'm trying to take care of my own family here.
There are lots of different organizations that you can willingly
volunteer and donate money to to help these people. Why
are my taxpayer dollars going to organizations like yours?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, in large part, it's got because the structure is
not there for it to be a volunteer led transfer
of individuals to the United States. There has to be
a federal framework in order for them to in order
for them to have the appropriate paperwork to get here
on that pathway to permanency and self sufficiency. So there's
almost this required layer in the middle that has to
(10:36):
be there in order for individuals because we want them
to be full background checks on not only them but
also their family members, and we want them to be
set up for success when they do get here. So
all of that, a lot of that paperwork gets done
before they even hop on the plane to come over
to the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Did the Trump administration cut off these dollars last month?
They did ye have they also cut off the number
of refugees coming in that you need to resettle.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They did.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay, So what is it that you guys? If President
Troup were sit in here, what would you ask him?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So I'd ask him two things. One is that you know,
we had a contract in order to do this work.
We feel that we're owed the dollars for the work
that was done prior to the stop work order. You know,
he can he can significantly lower the number of refugees
and that is the prerogative of the administration and have
(11:31):
no issue or problem with that. I have a humanitarian
sort of heart component of myself that understands that. But
I also am a firm believer that in like most people,
that the federal government needs to be smaller than what
it is. So I think there's an opportunity to find
balance in that though, especially for states like Nebraska and
Iowa where we have net negative migration of individuals out
(11:52):
of this state, and in large part we need people
that are willing to take some of the jobs that
we have in manufat, where it's food manufacturing, hard manufacturing,
et cetera. In order to fill those jobs, we need
people that are from outside of the state of Nebraska
to fill those in order to continue the economic growth
of this state.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
There are a lot of judges involved in a lot
of these decisions. There is there a court case somewhere
waiting to potentially disperse those funds back to organizations like yours.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, there was a court case that recently it was
the judge agreed that the funds should be released. This
was a couple of weeks ago as a court case
out in Washington, Washington State. And so we've started to
see some trickle in of some of those funds over
(12:41):
the course of the last two weeks from some of
that work that was done in the fourth quarter of
last year. We're not caught up yet, but there is
some of those funds that have started to come back
into the agency.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You mentioned you have a humanitarian heart, and therefore it
must be difficult for you. I mean, some people look
at the numbers six thousand refugees in Nebraska during a
large portion of the Biden administration and they think, Wow,
that's a lot of refugees. Other people, probably like you,
look at the number of people in other places around
(13:14):
the world who want to come to a place like
Nebraska and can't. There aren't funds, there's not the opportunity,
and you want to be able to take them all,
but there's also a balancing act that we can't take
them all. So when you look at the number six thousand,
is that about right? Is it not nearly enough? Is
it too much?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So? I think for a state like Nebraska, it's a
huge number, right. I mean that's just us as an agency.
I think we as a state have done a phenomenal
job and historically have been either the top on a
percentage of per capita basis, either been the top state
or the number two state only to Maine in regards
to the net inbound refugee we settlement and so our
(13:54):
communities understand the importance of refugees to the workforce development
of the state. We also understand the impact of refugees
in regards to the impact in regards to culture and
economic viability. I mean, a lot of the people that
we have resettled over the years are now business owners.
They're filling jobs in getting a CDL, they're filling jobs
(14:17):
at meat packing plants, they're filling jobs at manufacturers. So
for us, though, it's to your point, Scott, it's about resources.
So do we have safe affordable housing for these individuals
to live in. What kind of pressure are we putting
on the school systems and we understand that because we're
putting kids in schools that maybe don't have English language
skills at this moment. And the ability for us to
(14:39):
continue to find that balance of the right air quote
the right number of individuals to not only kind of
continue to further the economic engine of the state, but
also provide the best level of service and care for
those folks.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
When you look at the structure, the administrative structure of
Lutheran Families services in various I mean, there's how many
different organization are there throughout the country.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
So there's about three hundred looser and organizations across the country.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
There's a national directive that kind of assists all these
different groups. Do you have any concerns about maybe some
top heavy leadership that maybe has lost sight of what
should be the local goal of organizations like yours.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I think there's always questions about that, right, I mean,
I think that there's always the bigger things get the
more disconnected you get from the ground floor and from
the work that's truly being done at the ground level.
And so I think, you know, if nothing else, what
this has done is it's opened up lines of communication
in regards to what truly is happening at the local
level versus what's happening at the national level. And it's
(15:42):
created opportunities for that open dialogue to really for all
of us to really kind of think about how do
we do this type of work in the most effective
and efficient way, but also in a way that's really
sort of individual or client centered at its core. Because again,
it's real easy for an agency like us to just say, Okay,
(16:03):
you've been here ninety days, you've got a job, you know,
good luck, and you know, welcome to the United States
and welcome to Nebraska. We take a different approach in
the sense that we think that this is just the
beginning of a journey that ends in a citizenship ceremony
at the end of that five to seven year period,
and we really want to get these individuals to be
(16:23):
on that pathway to citizenship, because then that's the real
American dream, right is walking along that journey in order
to walk up that day and get that certificate that
says I'm now a US citizen.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I've seen a citizenship ceremony. It's a beautiful thing. I
know you've been through a bunch of them. So I
keep thinking about this. I wish I could get a
number of months down the line, six nine months down
the line, and all the concerns of people saying, well,
Trump and Elon Musk or you know, illegally destroying all
this stuff, and then there are people going they haven't
gone far enough and all needs to burn. And I'm like,
(16:58):
let's let's let all this kind of come to an
equilibrium to where maybe there has been some necessary cutting
of some taxpayer expenses, and we also have found those
things that America can and should do better than anyone else.
What do you see for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska
six to nine months down the road. Are you back
(17:20):
to doing the mission that you've sought out to do
or are you looking for another job?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now? I think you know, this is just one component
of the work that we do. So you know, we're
the state's largest mental and behavioral health provider. One of
the contracts that was articulated in the ex posts was
actually to provide mental and behavioral health to individuals that
served alongsider military and combat situations, and so obviously important
(17:46):
work because those are individuals that have dealt with trauma
not only for being in combat, but also the fact
that they needed to uproot their families and move here.
My hope is there's still roughly about fifteen to twenty
thousand Special immigrant Visa holders, which are those individuals that
helped our military in Afghanistan and Iraq that are still
(18:07):
waiting for a family reunification here in the United States
forwards six months from now. My hope is is that
we can, as you know, both as a group of
agencies as well as the federal government, see that that's
our priority because those are the individuals that already have
family members here. Our last case that we resettled a
(18:28):
couple of weeks ago was a mom and her seven
boys whose husband resettled here three years ago, and so
it's taken them three years in order for that family
to reunify. God blessed that mom for taking care of
seven boys all by herself. But the fact that we
were able to finally reunify that family is the type
(18:49):
of work that we should be doing in order or
in order to kind of fulfill our promise to those individuals.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Last question, three point three million dollars in two separate
payments just in November and December into the election. And
that's to your organization, the Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska.
That's only a small percentage of what you guys need
to be able to do all this stuff. What you
guys about a third of your budget is taxpayer funded.
(19:16):
So for those who are listening to this saying I
want to help out any way I can, what would
you advise they do so?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I think we always need volunteers to help with this.
It drives the cost down associated with this type of work.
We as an agency repeatedly get praised for the efficiency
in the level of work that we do in regards
to the number of individuals we serve in the costs
associated with that. That's a pride, that's a sense of
pride for us. I think that's a true sort of
(19:44):
Nebraska level of working through this. I think the second
big part of this is is that your private donations
have exponential impact in serving our clients. It just continues
to drive down the overall expense.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Chris Tonages, President and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of
Nebraska for more information online at one l f S
or O n e lfs dot org. One spelled out
O n e lfs dot org. Correct, Chris, thank you
very much for the time today and we'll look forward
to hearing more information is we get it from the
federal government on a lot of different fronts. Appreciate the
(20:22):
time today.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Thanks Scott. Scott Voyes Mornings nine to eleven, our News
Radio eleven ten KFAB
Scott vorgiez right now, we welcome into the program, president
and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. It was
just after the election of twenty twenty four and the
Biden administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services,
before RFK Junior got to the HELM, it started directing
(00:21):
a bunch of payments to various Lutheran Family services group
across the country, and about three point three million dollars
of that money came here to Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska.
It caught the attention of former National Security or former
retired Army General Michael Flynn, who had served in the
(00:43):
first Trump administration for a minute or so, and General
Flynn said, now it's the Lutheran Faith and Lutheran Family
Services and affiliated organizations received massive amounts of taxpayer dollars.
The numbers speak for themselves. These funds total billions of
American taxpayer dollars, and he says, many more organizations are
(01:07):
cashing in on our hard earned money. These entities are
receiving large sums which raise serious questions about how taxpayer
funds are being spent and who is benefiting. Caught the
attention of Doze leader Elon Musk, who apparently had stopped
these payments. So Chris Tonages is the president and CEO
(01:28):
of Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska. Chris, I appreciate you
coming in at this timing, Scott. That's all that we
learned just weeks ago. It was about a month and
a half or so ago. Then all this started bubbling
up on x slash Twitter. What's the latest on this?
So the latest is there's been several court cases by
(01:51):
affiliate organizations that are tied to the greater Lutheran Services
in America organization. A lot of US do refugee resettlement.
We're all interconnected, but independent agencies of one another. There's
been a couple court cases that have talked about the
fact that a lot of what you referenced in the
(02:13):
ex posts was tied to contracts, not necessarily grants or
money that's just flowing out the door, but rather contracts
to do this work. And with that stop work order
that happened also stopped the payments for the work that
we had done over the course of the last several months.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
So we've gotten to the point where we had roughly
about two and a half million dollars worth of work
and expenses associated with the programs that we do at
LFS that had yet to be paid.
Speaker 1 (02:44):
And listening to the stories and talking with some of
the people involved in some of these NGOs, these non
governmental organizations, it seems like there are so many people
at the ground level of these organizations doing really great
humanitarian work and and they count on the money coming
in to be able to continue that work somehow. In
(03:07):
the administrative levels, above national levels and so forth, there
are some people that seemingly took advantage of this situation,
and there are some groups that some of the allegations
out there are just crazy. What can you tell me
about the structure of Lutheran Family Services and how the
(03:27):
money comes from tax beyers through the federal government to
help you guys with resettling of refugees.
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Yeah, it's an interesting structure, Scott. There's nine volaggs as
we call them, or nine agencies at the federal level
that work with the federal government on basically providing a
framework and a network of agencies like Lutheran Family Services
to do the work at the local level. And so
(03:54):
are some of our contracts are directly with the federal government,
which is referenced in the post. Some of our contracts
are directly with those voluntary organizations of nine, we currently
work with two of them, and then we ask for
reimbursement from those nine organizations for the work that's been
(04:15):
done and the expenses that have been incurred.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
And looking here at what Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska does,
I was amazed at the number six thousand refugees in
the about three and a half years or so during
the Biden administration. Six thousand refugees. This is just in Nebraska.
I don't know if any communities that are saying, we
have so much money and resources here, please bring people
(04:41):
in here who have next to nothing and put them
in our communities and we can take great care of them.
So I'm guessing that the money goes towards helping this situation.
What can you tell me about these six thousand refugees
during the Biden administration who came to Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (04:56):
Yes, the way that the program structured is set up
as a ninety eight program where it's all built on
pathway to self sufficient self sufficiency for those family units,
and so at its core, it's an employment based program
that's really structured on getting individuals out of refugee camps.
Most of them helped or worked with our government in
(05:17):
some way shape or form over the course of the
last couple of years, a lot of them being from
Afghanistan in Iraq, and they supported our military in those
two conflicts. And once they get here, our staff works
with them over a ninety day timeframe to get in
an apartment set up, to get all of their employment
documentation put in place, get the kids involved in school,
(05:38):
you know, essentially kind of set them up for success,
and then within that ninety days they're in essence supposed
to have a full gainful employment and on that pathway
to self sufficiency.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
What happens if they're not.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
If they're not, then there's other resources that we have
there might be, and we're seeing that today where there's
layers in the employment paperwork that are coming in for
some of these individuals that we've resettled in December and January,
and so we use private funded donor dollars to offset
some of that expense associated with getting those individuals transitioned
(06:15):
into that pathway to permanency.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
There are so many communities that have you know, we
have all these people that we need we need people
to do these jobs and so forth, and there it
seems like there are still all these communities that say
we have all these jobs available, and so so if
we have people come in here by the thousands into
our communities, why are there still jobs available?
Speaker 2 (06:40):
How does how does? How is it that.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
There will be people who want to work. We're not
talking about, you know, bringing people out of you know,
jails and mental institutions and so forth, and here you're
talking about people who have helped in some cases our military.
How is it that that these people wouldn't find gainful
employment and try and wean themselves off of what the
tax payers are providing within ninety days.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, so they do. A lot of the delay really
is centered around the paperwork that's associated with So when
they get here, they've got all of their paperwork ready
to go to apply for their employment documentation. Sometimes there's delays.
It could be that they get stuck in a pile
at a desk somewhere in order to get approval. It
(07:25):
could be that there's a piece of paperwork, or they've
got to also do medical well being checks, So it
could be just a scheduling delay and getting some of
those things done to check them off the list in
order for them to get employment. But you bring up
a great point, Scott, about one in every three individuals
that we resettle is ready willing and able to work.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
What happens to the other two. Yeah, So they're family units.
A lot of them are kids. So when we resettle individuals,
it's oftentimes a family unit of four or more, but
we also resettle a lot of single individuals as well.
Talking here with the president and CEO of Lutheran Family
(08:07):
Services of Nebraska, Chris tanagis with us here on news
radio eleven ten kfab. So the allegation here from General Flynn,
who formerly worked in the Trump administration, and then this
has seemed to be supported by Elon Musk of DOGE,
is that there is some call it money laundering going on.
And suddenly people say, well, this person who works with
(08:28):
Lutheran Family Services National Organization, worked in the Obama administration,
worked with the former First Lady Michelle Obama, and now
she gets there, he gets this cushy job with all
this money and so forth, and this money's not going
towards the refugees that you're talking about. Can talk to
me about this allegation here on behalf of some of
these people associated with President Trump.
Speaker 2 (08:50):
Yeah, I don't quite understand exactly where the money laundering
component comes to this particular work, in large part because
of the fact that we have to show that we've
resettled individuals, and we also have to show the expenses
that are associated with this work in order to get reimbursement.
There's a component of those contracts that go to cover overhead.
(09:12):
So like our facilities, we have vans that we provide
transportation back and forth to these appointments to make sure
that they're meeting all of their requirements. And some of
those contracts offer some additional support for a lot of
that work, but it isn't like there's a bunch of
extra fluff associated with that. We have to submit budgets
ahead of time and then we have to meet milestones
(09:34):
along the way in order to get that reimbursement back
from that.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
What would you say to the idea of many American
taxpayers who say, we're trying to make ends meet in
our own communities and our own families, and we've had
a lot of our taxpayer dollars go towards wars and
areas like Iraq, like Afghanistan to train and make life
better for the people who live there. Unfortunately that didn't
work out so well in Afghanistan. But they say, look,
(10:00):
I'm trying to take care of my own family here.
There are lots of different organizations that you can willingly
volunteer and donate money to to help these people. Why
are my taxpayer dollars going to organizations like yours?
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Yeah, in large part, it's got because the structure is
not there for it to be a volunteer led transfer
of individuals to the United States. There has to be
a federal framework in order for them to in order
for them to have the appropriate paperwork to get here
on that pathway to permanency and self sufficiency. So there's
almost this required layer in the middle that has to
(10:36):
be there in order for individuals because we want them
to be full background checks on not only them but
also their family members, and we want them to be
set up for success when they do get here. So
all of that, a lot of that paperwork gets done
before they even hop on the plane to come over
to the United States.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Did the Trump administration cut off these dollars last month?
They did ye have they also cut off the number
of refugees coming in that you need to resettle.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
They did.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
Okay, So what is it that you guys? If President
Troup were sit in here, what would you ask him?
Speaker 2 (11:08):
So I'd ask him two things. One is that you know,
we had a contract in order to do this work.
We feel that we're owed the dollars for the work
that was done prior to the stop work order. You know,
he can he can significantly lower the number of refugees
and that is the prerogative of the administration and have
(11:31):
no issue or problem with that. I have a humanitarian
sort of heart component of myself that understands that. But
I also am a firm believer that in like most people,
that the federal government needs to be smaller than what
it is. So I think there's an opportunity to find
balance in that though, especially for states like Nebraska and
Iowa where we have net negative migration of individuals out
(11:52):
of this state, and in large part we need people
that are willing to take some of the jobs that
we have in manufat, where it's food manufacturing, hard manufacturing,
et cetera. In order to fill those jobs, we need
people that are from outside of the state of Nebraska
to fill those in order to continue the economic growth
of this state.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
There are a lot of judges involved in a lot
of these decisions. There is there a court case somewhere
waiting to potentially disperse those funds back to organizations like yours.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yes, there was a court case that recently it was
the judge agreed that the funds should be released. This
was a couple of weeks ago as a court case
out in Washington, Washington State. And so we've started to
see some trickle in of some of those funds over
(12:41):
the course of the last two weeks from some of
that work that was done in the fourth quarter of
last year. We're not caught up yet, but there is
some of those funds that have started to come back
into the agency.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
You mentioned you have a humanitarian heart, and therefore it
must be difficult for you. I mean, some people look
at the numbers six thousand refugees in Nebraska during a
large portion of the Biden administration and they think, Wow,
that's a lot of refugees. Other people, probably like you,
look at the number of people in other places around
(13:14):
the world who want to come to a place like
Nebraska and can't. There aren't funds, there's not the opportunity,
and you want to be able to take them all,
but there's also a balancing act that we can't take
them all. So when you look at the number six thousand,
is that about right? Is it not nearly enough? Is
it too much?
Speaker 2 (13:32):
So? I think for a state like Nebraska, it's a
huge number, right. I mean that's just us as an agency.
I think we as a state have done a phenomenal
job and historically have been either the top on a
percentage of per capita basis, either been the top state
or the number two state only to Maine in regards
to the net inbound refugee we settlement and so our
(13:54):
communities understand the importance of refugees to the workforce development
of the state. We also understand the impact of refugees
in regards to the impact in regards to culture and
economic viability. I mean, a lot of the people that
we have resettled over the years are now business owners.
They're filling jobs in getting a CDL, they're filling jobs
(14:17):
at meat packing plants, they're filling jobs at manufacturers. So
for us, though, it's to your point, Scott, it's about resources.
So do we have safe affordable housing for these individuals
to live in. What kind of pressure are we putting
on the school systems and we understand that because we're
putting kids in schools that maybe don't have English language
skills at this moment. And the ability for us to
(14:39):
continue to find that balance of the right air quote
the right number of individuals to not only kind of
continue to further the economic engine of the state, but
also provide the best level of service and care for
those folks.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
When you look at the structure, the administrative structure of
Lutheran Families services in various I mean, there's how many
different organization are there throughout the country.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
So there's about three hundred looser and organizations across the country.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
There's a national directive that kind of assists all these
different groups. Do you have any concerns about maybe some
top heavy leadership that maybe has lost sight of what
should be the local goal of organizations like yours.
Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I think there's always questions about that, right, I mean,
I think that there's always the bigger things get the
more disconnected you get from the ground floor and from
the work that's truly being done at the ground level.
And so I think, you know, if nothing else, what
this has done is it's opened up lines of communication
in regards to what truly is happening at the local
level versus what's happening at the national level. And it's
(15:42):
created opportunities for that open dialogue to really for all
of us to really kind of think about how do
we do this type of work in the most effective
and efficient way, but also in a way that's really
sort of individual or client centered at its core. Because again,
it's real easy for an agency like us to just say, Okay,
(16:03):
you've been here ninety days, you've got a job, you know,
good luck, and you know, welcome to the United States
and welcome to Nebraska. We take a different approach in
the sense that we think that this is just the
beginning of a journey that ends in a citizenship ceremony
at the end of that five to seven year period,
and we really want to get these individuals to be
(16:23):
on that pathway to citizenship, because then that's the real
American dream, right is walking along that journey in order
to walk up that day and get that certificate that
says I'm now a US citizen.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
I've seen a citizenship ceremony. It's a beautiful thing. I
know you've been through a bunch of them. So I
keep thinking about this. I wish I could get a
number of months down the line, six nine months down
the line, and all the concerns of people saying, well,
Trump and Elon Musk or you know, illegally destroying all
this stuff, and then there are people going they haven't
gone far enough and all needs to burn. And I'm like,
(16:58):
let's let's let all this kind of come to an
equilibrium to where maybe there has been some necessary cutting
of some taxpayer expenses, and we also have found those
things that America can and should do better than anyone else.
What do you see for Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska
six to nine months down the road. Are you back
(17:20):
to doing the mission that you've sought out to do
or are you looking for another job?
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Now? I think you know, this is just one component
of the work that we do. So you know, we're
the state's largest mental and behavioral health provider. One of
the contracts that was articulated in the ex posts was
actually to provide mental and behavioral health to individuals that
served alongsider military and combat situations, and so obviously important
(17:46):
work because those are individuals that have dealt with trauma
not only for being in combat, but also the fact
that they needed to uproot their families and move here.
My hope is there's still roughly about fifteen to twenty
thousand Special immigrant Visa holders, which are those individuals that
helped our military in Afghanistan and Iraq that are still
(18:07):
waiting for a family reunification here in the United States
forwards six months from now. My hope is is that
we can, as you know, both as a group of
agencies as well as the federal government, see that that's
our priority because those are the individuals that already have
family members here. Our last case that we resettled a
(18:28):
couple of weeks ago was a mom and her seven
boys whose husband resettled here three years ago, and so
it's taken them three years in order for that family
to reunify. God blessed that mom for taking care of
seven boys all by herself. But the fact that we
were able to finally reunify that family is the type
(18:49):
of work that we should be doing in order or
in order to kind of fulfill our promise to those individuals.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
Last question, three point three million dollars in two separate
payments just in November and December into the election. And
that's to your organization, the Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska.
That's only a small percentage of what you guys need
to be able to do all this stuff. What you
guys about a third of your budget is taxpayer funded.
(19:16):
So for those who are listening to this saying I
want to help out any way I can, what would
you advise they do so?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
I think we always need volunteers to help with this.
It drives the cost down associated with this type of work.
We as an agency repeatedly get praised for the efficiency
in the level of work that we do in regards
to the number of individuals we serve in the costs
associated with that. That's a pride, that's a sense of
pride for us. I think that's a true sort of
(19:44):
Nebraska level of working through this. I think the second
big part of this is is that your private donations
have exponential impact in serving our clients. It just continues
to drive down the overall expense.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Chris Tonages, President and CEO of Lutheran Family Services of
Nebraska for more information online at one l f S
or O n e lfs dot org. One spelled out
O n e lfs dot org. Correct, Chris, thank you
very much for the time today and we'll look forward
to hearing more information is we get it from the
federal government on a lot of different fronts. Appreciate the
(20:22):
time today.
Speaker 2 (20:23):
Thanks Scott. Scott Voyes Mornings nine to eleven, our News
Radio eleven ten KFAB
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