This story originally appeared on the website Clergy Complicit and is republished with permission.
The story of the murder of a university student in Georgia Laken Riley By a suspected illegal alien named Jose Ibarra has dominated national headlines over the past week.
Ibarra allegedly entered the United States through El Paso, Texas, in 2022 and was released from a detention center due to overcrowding. NewsNation reports that the NYPD arrested a suspect matching Ibarra's name and age in 2022 on charges of child endangerment of a 5-year-old.
In September 2023, Jose Ibarra reportedly moved to Athens, Georgia to be near his brother Diego Ibarra. Diego, who is also an illegal alien, entered the United States in 2023 and was reportedly arrested multiple times by the Athens-Clarke County Police Department.
We now learn that Ibarra was apparently a resident of Covenant House, a New York-based charity. Ibarra listed Covenant House as his official release address on U.S. Customs and Border Patrol documents. Congressman Lance Gooden of the Texas Covenant House demanded the immediate release of all records related to Jose Ibarra.
I am demanding the NGO funded by Biden @the covenant He turns over all records related to Laken Riley's killer, Jose Ibarra.
Ibarra listed Covenant Home as his release address according to CBP records.
Taxpayers should not fund NGOs that shelter illegal immigrants! https://t.co/XvNaXxMWVR
– Lance Gooden (@lansgooden) February 27, 2024
Covenant House is an agency of Catholic Charities of New York. Its stated goal is to provide safe housing and comprehensive care to youth ages 16-21 experiencing homelessness and survivors of human trafficking. The latest Form 990 reveals that it raised nearly $91 million in 2022.
Covenant House operates in 14 US states, 2 Canadian cities, and 6 cities in Latin America. A search of USAspending.gov for entries containing the keyword “Covenant House” revealed a total of $56.6 million in main awards and $13.3 in subawards in federal taxpayer funds awarded to Covenant House from 2021-2023. (Click here for detailed scholarship list). Keep in mind that these grants may be for services unrelated to immigration activities, but the money is fungible. Keep in mind that this is just one of hundreds of entities through which Catholic organizations receive federal taxpayer money and does not take into account any state taxpayer grants these organizations may have received (See Bishop Bank's Billions in Federal Immigration Funds).
Covenant House is located in the Archdiocese of New York and is ultimately the responsibility of Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
Related: Cardinal Dolan lectures Catholics on illegal immigration
Here are some questions that we think deserve some answers:
- Did any El Paso-based Catholic charities provide assistance to José Ibarra when he entered the United States in 2022?
- How did a 26-year-old illegal alien end up at Covenant House, a New York charity whose mission is to serve child survivors of human trafficking?
- Does Covenant House actually provide housing to illegal aliens or does it simply provide a fake mailing address that enables illegal immigrants to enter the country?
- Does Dar Al-Ahed do background checks on people before providing housing to them?
- Did Covenant House know of Ibarra's arrest record in New York?
- What types of helpers did Covenant House provide for Iberra (cash, debit cards, housing, food, transportation, phone, etc.)?
- How many other illegal aliens does Covenant House serve? What risks are these illegal aliens exposed to children?
- How many other Covenant House locations around the country provide assistance to illegal aliens?
- Did Dar Al-Ahd have a role in transporting Ibera to Georgia? Was another agency involved? If so, which ones)?
- What contracts do Covenant House, Catholic Charities, and the Archdiocese of New York have with federal and state government agencies through which they receive taxpayer money to assist illegal aliens?
Perhaps Cardinal Dolan can provide some answers.
Take action: Contact Cardinal Dolan at [email protected] Or 212-371-1000 and ask him to cooperate with Congressman Gooden's records request and tell him what you think about his diocese's involvement in trafficking illegal aliens.
