There are still more questions than answers about the plans for the old American Hebrew Academy (AHA) to house unaccompanied children who entered the country illegally.
A long list of questions was sent to Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra from Republican members of the North Carolina congressional delegation, including Sens. Richard Burr and Thom Tillis and Reps. Ted Budd and Virginia Foxx.
One of those questions can be stated fairly simply: Who gets the money?
The lease on the extremely upscale facility is reported to be $10 million a year for five years or $50 million.
According to that letter, a publicly traded Chinese company Puxin Limited loaned the AHA $26 million with an agreement for the academy to become an international preparatory school, but AHA never made the transition and has been closed since 2019.
It has been reported that the interest rate on that $26 million loan is 18 percent.
So, if the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) of the US Department of Health and Human Services is paying $50 million to lease the AHA campus, is Puxin the beneficiary of that money?
Is the US government essentially renting the facility from a Chinese company that has been delisted by the New York Stock Exchange and rescuing Puxin from what appears to be a questionable loan?
On the local level, Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston and Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan have noted that the 800 employees of the proposed ORR facility would have a positive impact on the local economy.
It is also been reported that the ORR facility would house up to 800 children.
So, according to the reports, the proposed ORR facility for unaccompanied migrant children who entered the country illegally will have a one-to-one ratio of employees to children.
This is many times the ratio of faculty and employees to students at even the most expensive and prestigious prep schools in the country.
Has the number of employees been overstated or will the ORR facility have a one-to-one ratio of employees to children?
Sounds like the big guy, Hunter and Skip got a good one…
Greensboro should of turned that into a homeless shelter and place to get the homeless, addicted and mentally ill help and to get them set up to work and to transition out to there own homes. A way to get them off the streets and out of the City Park that Mayor Nancy wants to waste money on. That would be win win for Greensboro. Maybe they can let all the law breakers who are riding 4 wheelers, dirt bikes, etc.. illegally and recklessly all over the City meet there.
What are you talking about??? That’s insane. Downtown is already being destroyed so you want MORE of the tax base to flee and destroy another part of town? Why not just use Friendly Center while your at it? I mean the mall is already destroyed, why would a city that already has the highest tax rate in the country, that swears it needs more money to address the current problem, need a place for the people actually footing the bill to shop and eat and live in peace?
East Greensboro votes for this crap. Let’s put them ALl there. Maybe Hightower will find some solutions then.
Will legal children be able to get free daycare also?
Noticed unusual amount of vehicles in the parking area today. Looks like its getting close to happening. Typical of Skip and Nancy to fail to mention the increased traffic on Hobbs Jefferson, and New Garden road for 3 shifts a day. 7 days a week. 365 days a year! I don’t think these facts are positive for anyone in this neighborhood. Sad and disgusting.
John:
just a short, thank you.
Very nice article, where the hell is the GSO News & Record?
Bob Slone
Jamestown, NC
All extremely valid questions that need answers before going forward.
Where is our so called Congressmen with answers?
If you live in Congressional District 6, and you probably do, your Congresswoman is Kathy Manning. She is a wealthy Democrat, a Harvard graduate and a former immigration lawyer originally from Detroit. If anyone opposed to illegal immigration and opposed to housing 19 and 20-year-old “minors,” at the Taj Mahal of school campuses, and expect to get support from Kathy Manning, think again. The former District 6 Congressman was Howard Coble. What a difference re-drawn districts make. Her vote is always with Biden.
US government renting from a Chinese company that isn’t listed on the stock exchange anymore??? Just WTF could go wrong with that??. INSANE…
Your City and County governments (run by Democrats) in action. You get what you vote for.
Sounds like this deal should be canceled.
The AHA is going to be a bleep show. I especially love how our local leaders don’t know anything. Hey Nancy you used to live near where the Hebrew is when you were a Republican and fighting development on New Garden Road. Since you’ve moved up in the world you don’t give a crap about those who are left. What is the impact on the traffic considering it’s all small roads leading into the AHA? What about Guilford College? And yes, the $ is going to China. It’s all about Biden.
“Unaccompanied children”…. ? A lot of these “children” look just like Twenty something young men. The UK government classifies many of the illegal immigrants crossing the Channel in the same way, but television reports show hairy brown men jumping out of little skiffs as they pretend to escape religious and political persecution – in France!
Pretty French girls dare not go out in the streets of Paris for a fun evening – because of these “children”.
We’re being lied to.
Skip Alston and Nancy Vaughn never know what they are taking about. How in the world does Alston and Vaughn know there will be 800 employed? Short answer, they do not. Alston and Vaughn talk about the employed as if that is all that matters. It is not.
Another local disaster thanks to Skip and Nancy. Why would anyone take a loan from a Chinese entity? If AHA took the loan but did not follow through, how can, or why would, ORR get involved? Will ORR take over the loan? It is quite different to get money to set up an international preparatory (indoctrination?) school versus housing illegal alien children. Will the children go to public school? Who will pay for their clothes, books, food? This would never have happened had Biden and his minions kept the border closed. This is ridiculous. These children will have a better life than many of the poor American children with parents in the low economic range. I assume when they say “children” that this includes anyone under 18 years of age. Will any of the 16-18 year old group be expected to work? Oh, there is that horrible word! If you are getting hand outs from the government, you just sit back, take it and do not have to worry about work! The country is broken.
The gangsters from the countries (El Salvador, Guatemala) lie about their age and then disappear. Skip and Nancy (both Nancy’s) are either incompetent on this issue or willfully ignorant. This is a disaster for the area.
Questions like: Who’s running this show? Who can I contact on site when I catch one of these kids sneaking off in the middle of the night? Where are all the 800 to 1200 staff members coming from? Are they local or imported? How’s hiring going and what’s the pay? What kind of training are they getting? Where are the kids going after their “brief stay” at this facility? Are they being released into the wild? Will the crimes committed on campus by the kids and against the kids be reported to the police? Who is policing this place? How are you keeping the kids from wandering off? I got a million of them.
I don’t think this is close to being over. There are rumors of expansion. Think Highwoods.
This is going to have a huge impact on the entire area, all the way to New Garden road and beyond. I can think of a million things that can go wrong with this whole thing. I’m not sure I feel safe in my house off New Garden Rd or not.
Can we just start calling is the MS-13 Academy?
With a shady Chinese company running this s#@&show, this place sounds more like an indoctrination/training camp than a prestigious education center. But, as long as Nancy and Skip get their kickbacks and recognition, who cares???
Like every government run operation, this is going to be one huge failure, and as always, we, the taxpayers will be stuck with the bill and inconvenience.
I do not look forward to the horror stories we will eventually be hearing about this place. It cannot be a coincidence that the unaccompanied minors are being sent to a high human trafficking area. The money situation described in the article is suspect as well.
What happens when the immigrant children are no longer children? How are their ages proven?
800 jobs are a great thing.
What kinds of jobs are they? How much do they pay? Enough to keep a person off government assistance? How are these people vetted and what oversight will be in place to protect these minors?
https://floridianpress.com/2022/08/florida-companies-tied-to-school-housing-illegal-immigrants/
More interesting info provided by a reporter who happens to be an AHA graduate.
Lets do like Texas is doing. They are busing the illegals to Washington and NY, and the Democrats there are crying we cant take care of these people. We can bus them to Skip and Nancy’s neighborhood. Folks, Crime is going to explode over this situation. It already is the highest crime City per capita in N.C. Greensboro is going down the toilet and this will be Skip and Nancy’s Legacy.
Only 16% of voters turned out for this election. This is shameful. Few are listening and educating themselves on what is playing out in Greensboro. I fear great decline for this town. The apathy is off the charts. Greensboro is dying and the voters are to blame. In what universe does it make sense to flood the borders with illegals and then house them in a luxury facility and have our tax money pay millions for employees to feed and educate them when our own schools and citizens could use help. Then Skip and Nancy will brag about the uptick in jobs. Pretty ironic. Shut up and pay your taxes.
Only in America are illegals treated better than citizens.Too bad we can’t locate these centers in the Hamptons or Irving Park.
Since this deal includes a real estate transaction, the lease of the property at $10M/year, I wonder if a commission is being paid. If so, it would be interesting to know to whom and how much.
You can also thank Kathy Manning for this gift to the community.
Kathy Manning is a very sorry representative for District 6. Just during the 18 months of the Biden administration she has voted to add $3.8 trillion to the US deficit. And she is paid $174,000/year plus exquisite benefits to lay this on her constituents. (That’s us!)
If you live in Congressional District 6, and you probably do, your Congresswoman is Kathy Manning. She is a wealthy Democrat, a Harvard graduate and a former immigration lawyer originally from Detroit. If anyone opposed to illegal immigration and opposed to housing 19 and 20-year-old “minors,” at the Taj Mahal of school campuses, and expect to get support from Kathy Manning, think again. The former District 6 Congressman was Howard Coble. What a difference re-drawn districts make. Her vote is always with Biden.
So, it would appear that the Biden administration’s plan is that the uncontrolled massive influx of unaccompanied illegal immigrant minors will continue for at LEAST 5 more years. Where exactly will all those kids go year after year?
Where will they go year after year?
To the polls, of course, to vote for democrats.
“Oy vey!”
I would not vote for unaccompanied young illegals unvetted to be brought into our state much less our city. This situation is being forced on us and should not be allowed. These folks are illegals and not refugees and should be sent back to their country.
Just say No to this for oh, so many reasons! It sounds like as always, the children, small children could be harmed or neglected! We have too little information! Why would we want to deal with a Communist Chinese organization!
$10,000,000 per year for a facility to house 800, that is $12,500 PER YEAR PER KID.
It’s a shame our kids in Greensboro are not as important. Our kids sure don’t get one on one in our schools and definitely do not have nurses in our schools everyday.