Taxpayer-Funded Illegal Immigrant Child Services Group—BCFS—Improperly Disclosed Lobbying On Tax Forms

Guest Post by Mara Zebest

This is an UPDATE on a previous BCFS article exposing the ACORN-like laundering of funds filtered through the organization via the Obama administration. Recall that Baptist Child and Family Services (BCFS) was behind the Federal Govt. deal for $50M to buy a resort hotel for illegals (additional reports here and here).

It appears the group hasn’t exactly been honest in reporting their lobbying agenda on their tax forms. Imagine what the IRS would do if this had been a conservative organization? It turns out that the “Brown Shirts” security hired to ensure no one reported on the illegals were also employees of BCFS.

The Daily Caller reports the following:

A Texas-based organization that has been awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in federal contracts by the Obama administration to house illegal immigrant children not only lobbied the federal government, but also failed to properly disclose the activity.

After The Daily Caller inquired about its lobbying disclosures, BCFS, a San Antonio-based nonprofit, now says it may correct its tax forms to properly disclose its lobbying expenditures.

The Obama administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services, has tapped BCFS, formerly known as Baptist Child & Family Services, to provide security and other services to unaccompanied children at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, and Ft. Sill army base near Lawton, Okla.

BCFS has become the largest provider of such services for the child immigrants, who are part of a massive influx of mostly Central Americans that has put the Obama administration on its heels. […]

HHS has given BCFS $280 million in federal contracts for its services so far this year. Nearly all of that — $270 million — has been given for services for unaccompanied children. HHS has given BCFS $458 million in total, according to the Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System.

According to the Senate lobbying database, BCFS is the only organization that provides residential services directly for unaccompanied children that has spent money on lobbying.

Since 2006, BCFS has spent $210,000, according to a database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.

In 2008, Congress passed an anti-trafficking law that requires the Department of Homeland Security to turn unaccompanied children from countries that do not border the U.S. over to the care of HHS. HHS then houses the children until they can be placed with relatives or sponsors while awaiting deportation proceedings.

In 2011, BCFS paid Madison Policy Group $20,000 to “advocate the continued appropriation levels for child welfare programs under HHS — Administration for Children & Families, including the Unaccompanied Alien Children account.” 

BCFS paid Washington D.C. lobbying powerhouse Williams & Jensen $190,000 in total in 2006, 2007 and 2009, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The lobbying was split between Congress and various agencies, including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, DHS and HHS.

“BCFS has contracted with outside government relations firms; like many non-profits do,” BCFS spokeswoman Krista Piferrer told TheDC.

But a deeper analysis conducted by TheDC found inconsistencies in BCFS’s lobby expenditure reporting on its tax forms.

In response to the primary section of BCFS’s IRS 990 forms which asks whether organizations spent money on lobbying, the organization checked “No” in every year in which it lobbied. […]

The organization first came to national attention during the latest immigration wave earlier this month when Fox News reported that the BCFS’s security personnel were threatening to arrest medical staff if they discussed the contagion threat at Lackland Air Force Base. BCFS personnel were also reportedly calling themselves “Brown Shirts” because of the tan T-shirts they wear.

Read more here. Additional information reported at The Last Refuge.

Another ACORN-for-Illegal group to keep a sharp eye on is the La Raza-based organization with strong ties to the Obama administration known as “Southwest Key“.

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