Archive for April, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 30, 2010
Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFSC) has now announced that they will stop vital immigration services for refugees in Greensboro, and this is, ”exclusively a financial decision” (here). This comes on the heels of the agency announcing in late February that they would discontinue resettling refugees in Greensboro (here and here).
We spoke with a State Department official who stated that they had been aware of the series of newspaper articles late last year that revealed that refugees were not being cared for at LFSC, but she claimed that the decision to stop refugee resettlement at LFSC was made by LFSC and its national partner LIRS. So in other words, the State Department is refusing to say what their involvement was. How’s that for open and transparent government that President Obama has called on the federal agencies to carry out?
In either case, refugees are once again left hanging.
Posted in faith-based, funding, Greensboro, immigration services, Iraqi, LIRS, Lutheran Family Services of the Carolinas, neglect, North Carolina, Obama administration, State Department | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 30, 2010
The Wall Street Journal is preparing an investigation into how charitable donations collected were disbursed after the tragic shooting last year at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, NY, where an immigrant shot to death 13 other refugees and immigrants (here).
According to one family member the donations were dispersed to people who were not shot or injured and who did not lose any family members in the tragic shooting.
David Marsland’s wife, Hongxiu was among the victims.
He believes most of the money was donated with the understanding that it would assist the families of the 13 who died.
David Marsland says, “There was a lot of effort to try to obscure who the payments were to. But, the truth is that anyone who was in that building, even people who emerged unscathed, received a cash payment from out of the charitable donations. Even though they weren’t collected in their names. The sum total average among the family members was about $2600 a piece out of $170,000 that was left over after they paid for all of the things that they used the charitable donations to pay for.”
The American Civic Association in Binghamton is a USCRI affiliate.
Posted in American Civic Association, Binghamton, New York, Refugees in US, USCRI | Tagged: American Civic Association, Binghamton, donations, fund, immigrants, killed, massacre, NY, refugees, shooting, USCRI, Wall Street Journal | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 29, 2010
Cuban refugees are unhappy with services they are receiving at Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services in Chattanooga, an affiliate of Church World Services and Episcopal Migration Ministries (here).
Refugees are unhappy with the insufficient amount of pocket-money the agency gave them, a lack of food, as well as what sounds like a lack of community and cultural orientation. All of this of course is supposedly required by the State Department’s Operational Guidance contract document (here).
Some Cuban refugees who arrived recently in Chattanooga say the agency hasn’t done enough to help them start their new lives in the United States.
“When we first arrived, they gave us $30 for a family of five,” said Pedro Fumero, who arrived with his wife Mayelin Posada and three children — ages 5, 16 and 18 — on Sept. 10, 2009.
…it…[took] several calls before (Bridge) brought us food,” he said in his Southside apartment.
Mr. Fumero is the former president of a human rights association in Cuba.
…”They say they are going to take you shopping, you are going to have a fully furnished home, that someone is going to teach you the (American) system, but you get here and it’s not true,” he said.
“I understand if they can’t help, but at least I would like for them to come and say, ‘I can’t get you what you want or need but we will work at it,’” he said.
…”What worries me the most is that they are leaving them to fend for themselves,” said Mirtha Jones, a Cuba native and director of La Plaza Comunitaria, a program where many of the Cubans study English.
It sounds like these refugees have heard false rumors about so-called “fully furnished homes”, but $30 is obviously not enough pocket-money for a family of five. The pocket-money requirement is to allow the refugees to purchase incidentals while they wait for cash-assistance approvals – and is often used for toiletries, food, doing laundry, bus passes, etc. I think a more reasonable amount for a family of five would be at least $50-60.
Not only should resettlement agencies give refugees enough food to last a week or two until their food stamps come through, there should also be a ready-to-eat meal at their apartment.
The complaint about not being taught about the American system means that they didn’t get cultural and community orientation yet. Perhaps the agency will offer that in the next week or so, or perhaps they just skipped that requirement entirely.
Posted in Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Chattanooga, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, CWS, EMM, faith-based, food, neglect, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, State Department, Tennessee | Tagged: Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Chattanooga, Church World Services, community orientation, contract, Cuba, Cuban, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, CWS, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, food, human rights, Operational Guidance, pocket-money, refugee, refugees, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 28, 2010
Refugees with professional credentials continue to receive inappropriate employment services from many refugee resettlement agencies. Trained as doctors, engineers, and lawyers, most of these refugees are placed in no-skill or low-skill jobs – cleaning, assembly, landscaping labor, etc. — with almost no attempt made to place them in jobs where they could use their skills.
Iraqi SIV immigrants reported about these problems in Sacraemnto (here).
According to Michelle Karolak, director of the refugee resettlement program at Catholic Charities in Jacksonville, this isn’t her fault, it’s the refugees’ fault (here).
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“A lot of our other clients – although not all of them – are willing to take whatever is offered,” said Michelle Karolak, director of the refugee resettlement program for the local operations of Catholic Charities. “Iraqis, not so much.”
“We have no choice,” Karolak said. “We have to get them up and running as fast as we can.”
Yet, do they have to get them, “up and running as soon as possible”, only in low-skill jobs? There is no such requirement. The refugee program stresses the need for early self-sufficiency, but does not require resettlement agencies to place refugees in low-pay, low-skill jobs. In fact, jobs for which refugees can use their professional skills are much more likely to allow them to become self-sufficient. Also, what does she mean, “as fast as we can”? Refugees, almost as a rule, report that they sit for months at a time with no one helping them to find jobs.
According to refugees in Jacksonville they’ve had to find professional jobs on their own because local resettlement agencies won’t help them.
Majid Abdulmajeed…was hired as an adjunct professor of chemical engineering based on his experience in Iraq. But he only got the job after an acquaintance passed his resume to the school.
“The main employment agent didn’t suggest jobs like this,” he said.
Well, why not? Have resettlement agencies begun to believe their own PR that Iraqi refugees are just too difficult, and refugees must accept any job offered? According to the Matching Grant Program requirements (only 30% of refugees are enrolled in it, but the resettlement agencies are doing everything they can to get the government to expand the program) refugees must accept the first job offered, but even in that case that doesn’t mean that resettlement agencies have to refer the refugees to inappropriate jobs.
Many resettlement agencies seem to have an extraordinarily difficult time thinking outside of the box, and of course refugees continue to pay the price for that.
Posted in California, Catholic Charities, employment services, Florida, Iraqi, Jacksonville, Matching Grant program, neglect, professionals, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants, USCCB, World Relief | Tagged: any job offered, catholic charities, employment, employment services, FL, Florida, Iraqi, Iraqis, Jacksonville, jobs, low-skill, Matching grant, Michelle Karolak, no-skill, professional, professionals, refugee, refugees, self-sufficiency, USCRI, World Relief | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 21, 2010
Eric Schwartz the State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration issued a letter about the 30th Anniversary of the U.S. Refugee Program as well as his recent visits to Denver and Phoenix (here).
Mr. Schwartz said that during his trips to Denver and Phoenix that he saw “the full range of stakeholders” in both cities, including state, county and local government officials; local voluntary agency resettlement staff; local police, public health, education, employment and transportation officials; and resettled refugees.
And how was he able to access local refugee clients? Through local refugee resettlement contractors who were able to determine which refugees he could meet, no doubt. I bet that refugees who were none too pleased with their resettlement certainly were not invited to take part. Under what logical scheme are private contractors allowed to decide who government funding and oversight agencies are able to meet with? It also sounds like Mr. Schwartz did not meet with any members of the local community, i.e citizens. Why not? Isn’t the refugee program supposed to be serving the American public’s humanitarian interests? The refugee program is a public program, and the last time I checked the government is supposed to be ”of, by and for” the people. Yet he just meets with government employees, government contractors, and few hand-selected refugees.
Then he delved into the most important aspect of his claimed efforts to help refugees — the honey pot.
“We were so very gratified by the strong and unequivocal messages of support we received from local community members, who were enthusiastic about the State Department’s recent decision to double the level of initial assistance provided to newly arriving refugees.”
By “local community members” he meant “local government contractors”. Well gee, of course they love getting more government funding. Who wouldn’t? But more importantly, who do they answer to for it? The refugees? No, they are powerless. To local citizens? No, this is a secretive program that restricts citizen involvement. To the State Department? Not really. Their oversight is weak and ineffective. They think being “nice” to their great “partners” (resettlement contractors) is the best way to operate – strangely, since it’s proven so disastrous over the past two decades. Contract requirements and regulations violated? Not to worry. The contractors have such a hard time of things you see. They must have good reasons for these continuing violations. Be nice to them. But then who will be nice to the refugees with such weak program oversight?
“Throughout the visit I was struck by the extraordinary efforts of our partners in the field. They are working assiduously to meet the needs of the refugee populations they serve, and their personal commitment to the service of others was as inspiring as it was impressive.”
Well again, all of that is really nice, but what about the extreme problems in the refugee program with refugee resettlement contractors who just will not, or cannot, provide even the most minimal services and material items to refugees? Wouldn’t it also be nice to address that issue once in a while? What about the contractors who are supposed to be bringing significant private funding to the program yet rely almost exclusively on government funding, and every week trumpet to the newspapers the lie that refugees are in dire straits because the government doesn’t give enough money?
Posted in Arizona, Assistant Secretary of the PRM, Colorado, Denver, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), funding, government, neglect, Phoenix, PRM, public/private partnership, R&P, State Department | Tagged: 1980 Refugee Act, 30th anniversary, contractors, Denver, Department of State, Eric Schwartz, government funding, oversight, Phoenix, Population Refugees and Migration, private funding, PRM, public funding, public/private partneship, R&P, refugee, refugees, resettlement agencies, State Department | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 20, 2010
Wui Liang LIM, an M.S Candidate and reporter from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, and his colleague, Nikolia Apostolou, recently completed their Master’s Thesis about Bhutanese refugees in New York City. The title is — The Refugee Syndrome: Exploring the psychology of Bhutanese refugees in NYC. It’s a multimedia project that explores the psychology of these refugees as they adapt to life in the Big Apple (here).
The IRC declined interviews for the documentary.
In the documentary I noted that Bill Frelick of Human Rights Watch (formerly of the USCRI volag) says that psychiatry may be a solution for refugees’ depression, but does he know how refugees fare with the American mental health system? Will they take pills every day for depression? Many of the male refugees I know will not do that, as they think it is a sign of weakness. People from non-Western cultures also often don’t like our therapy style – i.e. sitting in an office with a stranger and talking about their problems. Wouldn’t it be a better idea for resettlement agencies to try to help ease refugees’ isolation?
By the way, I found the blog of Thakur Prasad Mishra, the Nepali-Bhutanese refugee journalist featured in the documentary. He writes about how dangerous the Bronx neighborhood is where IRC resettled the refugees. A 16-year-old Bhutanese refugee boy was beaten-up three times while walking on the street. (scroll down to August 4, 2009 entry titled Question of Security, here).
An article in the New York Times in September 2009 reported that the IRC had placed the Nepali Bhutanese refugees in a Bronx apartment building with a weed-choked front courtyard and grimy staircases (here). The refugees’ apartments were only furnished with a couple of bureaus and several beds that doubled as couches, and little else (check out the actual State Dept. refugee contract requirements, here). Is this why the IRC doesn’t want to talk about it?
Jit Bahadur Pradhan
The documentary also points to two suicides by Bhutanese refugees in recent months. One of those was 60-year-old Jit Bahadur Pradhan who killed himself on Jan. 11 due to depression (here and here). The USCCB resettled him to Pittsburgh on Dec. 2, 2009 via its Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh affiliate.
“He was found dead hanging in a laundry room Friday morning,” Bhanu Phuyel, another refugee resettled in the same city, told ekantipur.com from the US….Six members of the family were sharing a two-bed room apartment along with another family with four people. They had not received any other facility except food card.
[Jit Bahadur Pradhan] was annoyed with the circumstances, and used to complain with his two sons that the situation there was no better than in the camp in Nepal.
More than 150 Bhutanese refugees…have been resettled in Pittsburgh and outlying areas including Prospect Park and Green Tree. Sixty of them are working in a food-packing company.
Another Bhutanese refugee committed suicide in Nashville.
*UPDATE* Dec. 3, 2010 - Another refugee has committed suicide, this time in Phoenix.
Posted in Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, mental health, Nepali Bhutanese, New York, NYC, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, suicide, USCCB | Tagged: bhutanese, Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, depression, International Rescue Committee, IRC, mental health, nepalese, New York, Nikolia Apostolou, NY, NYC, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, psychology, refugee, refugees, suicide, The Refugee Syndrome, USCCB, Wui Liang LIM | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 20, 2010
In regard to the Postville, Iowa Agriprocessors scandal, involving a series of the most egregious violations of child labor laws, abuse of underage immigrants, and repeated accusations of brutalization of cattle, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) President and CEO Gideon Aronoff’s new focus on the case is that the former CEO of Agriprocessors, Sholom Rubashkin, be treated fairly (here). Never mind about the crimes. Said Mr. Aronoff:
“It is crucially important that the trial be conducted fairly, not benefiting him or treating him worse because of his Jewish faith. The same goes for the kosher meat industry.”
Gideon Aronoff
Rubashkin faces a possible life sentence on April 28 following his conviction last November on 86 counts of money laundering and mail, wire and bank fraud charges. Rubashkin, a Lubavitch Hasidic Jew, and several former Agriprocessors managers still face state charges involving 9,311 counts (yes, you read that right) of violating Iowa’s child labor laws.
Sholom Rubashkin
Aronoff’s previous focus was that any unfairness in this case came, not frfom the horrendous crimes on teenage workers, but from the government ICE raid on this despicable slaughterhouse business. Mr. Aronoff said the raid was unfair to the company, the workers, and the local community, and that Jews remembered similar raids on their community in WW2-era Europe. Again, never mind that the raid uncovered the extent of the crimes, and ended them.
Mr. Aronoff also tried to claim that companies have to hire immigrants because immigrants are the only ones who will accept low wages here (Agriprocessors’ starting wage was $6.15 for 12-16 hour shifts six days a week!).
We cannot condone the hiring of undocumented workers. But at the same time, we cannot ignore that American workers are unwilling to meet businesses’ labor needs at prevailing wages and there is no legal avenue for businesses to petition for the unskilled migrant workers they so desperately need.
Oh really? Is that the problem? Or is paying workers next-to-nothing associated with abusive and oppressive conditions?
Rarely during this scandal, and then only as a side-note, has Mr. Aronoff mentioned the real issues in Postville — the nightmarish working conditions for teenage immigrants and the extreme exploitation and inhumane (therefore nonkosher) slaughter of animals (confirmed in videotapes by undercover Orthodox Jewish members of PETA). These issues apparently are of little interest to the HIAS. Bear in mind that refugees all over the country are toiling away in meat-packing plants under similar or related conditions.
The May 2008 ICE raid found 57 under-age workers at Agriprocessors, some as young as 13. Investigators found multiple child labor law violations for each under-age worker at the plant, including employing minors in prohibited occupations, exposing them to hazardous chemicals, and making them work with prohibited tools like knives and saws to cut meat and poultry with little or no safety training. The young immigrants told investigators that they worked shifts of 12-17 hours, sometimes six nights a week (here and here).
One, a Guatemalan named Elmer L. who said he was 16 when he started working on the plant’s killing floors, said he worked 17-hour shifts, six days a week. In an affidavit, he said he was constantly tired and did not have time to do anything but work and sleep. “I was very sad,” he said, “and I felt like I was a slave.”
The immigrant saw “a rabbi who was calling employees derogatory names and throwing meat at employees.” …In another episode, the informant said a floor supervisor had blindfolded an immigrant with duct tape. “The floor supervisor then took one of the meat hooks and hit the Guatemalan with it,”
Elmer L. said he had told floor supervisors that he was under 18.
…“They asked me how old I was,” Elmer L. said. “They could see that sometimes I could not keep up with the work.” …Elmer L. said that he …was paid $7.25 an hour. He said he was not paid overtime consistently. “My work was very hard, because they didn’t give me my breaks, and I wasn’t getting very much sleep,” he said. “They told us they were going to call immigration if we complained.”
Elmer L. said that he was clearing cow innards from the slaughter floor last Aug. 26 when a supervisor he described as a rabbi began yelling at him, then kicked him from behind. The blow caused a freshly-sharpened knife to fly up and cut his elbow.
He was sent to a hospital where doctors closed the laceration with eight stitches. But he said that when he returned, his elbow still stinging, to ask for some time off, his supervisor ordered him back to work.
The next day, as he was lifting a cow’s tongue, the stitches ruptured, Elmer L. said, and the wound bled again. He said he was given a bandage at the plant and sent back to work. The incident is confirmed in a worker’s injury report filed on Aug. 31, 2007, by Agriprocessors with the Iowa labor department.
The company also distributed fake green cards to workers. Their PR hacks impersonated a leading critic, Rabbi Morris Allen, on a blog. A son-in-law verbally threatened members of a socially conscious Ultra-Orthodox group during a meeting about conditions at the slaughterhouse, and another son-in-law entered into a plea bargain in a case in which he reportedly embezzled funds from an Orthodox Jewish Girl’s Day School (here).
Aside from HIAS’ obvious ethical blindness of the most important issues brought to light by this case of mass abuse of underage immigrants is the current outrageous focus of many in the fervently religious Jewish community (ultra-orthodox) on what type of prison accommodations Sholom Rubashkin, the former CEO of Agriprocessors, will get (here), while ignoring the crimes that brought about the possible long prison sentence.
Now that the 51-year-old father of 10 faces a possible life sentence…such a harsh penalty would make Rubashkin ineligible for a correctional facility that can accommodate Hasidic Jews.
Out of about 250,000 federal inmates….only a few dozen are ultra-Orthodox adherents,…Most go …where the facilities can handle their special diets, group prayers and other religious needs. Those facilities, however, do not accept prisoners with long sentences.
….Federal prisons tend to be more accommodating of religiously observant inmates than state and county facilities, and should be able to at least provide kosher food and allow him to maintain his traditional appearance, he said.
This case shows the ethical myopia that results when people focus on their own pet immigration and refugee issues while ignoring the most basic mistreatment of those people by others in their own organization, group or extended communities.
Corruption and ethical abuses close to home are often the hardest type to face.
Posted in government, ICE, HIAS, religion, Jewish, Guatemalan, Iowa, meatpacking industry | Tagged: volag, IA, refugee, refugees, resettlement, meatpacking, Agriprocessors, Iowa, HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Gideon Aronoff, Postville, immigrants, Guatemalan, Sholom Rubashkin, meat industry, koshur, Jewish, Lubavitch, Hasidic, child labor, ICE, slaughterhouse, jews, undocumented workers, migrant, migrants, Orthodox, PETA, violations, immigration, rabbi, Ultra-Orthodox, fervently religious, prison, hispanic, latino | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 19, 2010
Once again refugees are complaining about services they received at a USCRI affiliate, in this case the International Institute of Boston (here).
Many refugees are angry at resettlement agencies, such as the International Institute of Boston, that brought them here. They accuse the institute of placing them in apartments that are too expensive for their meager benefits, and then abandoning them.
Carolyn Benedict Drew, International Institute president, instead blames the refugees, saying they are rich and expect too much. Apparently Ms. Benedict Drew prefers that all refugees be poor, uneducated people with lower expectations of what her agency should do for them.
Carolyn Benedict Drew, International Institute president, said she agreed that the financial assistance was inadequate but also said many of the Iraqis came from well-to-do families and had higher expectations than refugees from poorer backgrounds.
“If somebody has been in a refugee camp all of their life, and has never really used a fork and spoon, that’s a very different expectation in coming to America than somebody in Iraq who was a physician and did very well,’’ Drew said.
But of course refugee resettlement agencies don’t get to pick who is a refugee. Refugees are people who are fleeing oppression, and some of them are educated and/or middle or upper social-economic people. They tend to ask more questions and are a bit less easy to intimidate, i.e. they’re “uppity”, in the minds of some of the resettlement agencies.
As usual Bob Carey, director of resettlement and migration policy at the International Rescue Committee (IRC), then tries to blame things on the government. He also feels he can speak for the refugees:
“They’ve been shocked at how little support they get.’’
Mr. Carey, do you ever tell your refugee clients that they should also be expecting support from your organization and not just the government? Do you ever tell them that you’re not adding much private funding? Instead, after successfully lobbying Congress to double the State Department contract money you now want to get even more goodies via your partner government agency, HHS’s ORR.
By now the private refugee resettlement “charities” have long since learned that they don’t have to offer much of anything on their own. Instead, they know they can just do a poor job and then effectively lobby the federal government to fill the “void”. For example, with the arrival of another refugee group that has many professionals, Iraqi refugees (like many of the former Yugoslav republics refugees before them), resettlement agencies are now spinning their lack of even minimum adequate help to these refugees as the fault of insufficient U.S. government funding.
Resettlement agencies are calling on federal and state governments to increase cash assistance and its duration. They also want professional re-certification programs that would enable refugee doctors, lawyers, accountants, and other professionals to work in the careers in which they were trained. Until these measures are taken, they say, the federal government should provide money for emergency housing.
If they really believe that the government should give funding for all needs then what exactly is the point of involving charitable groups in the refugee resettlement program? As supposed charities shouldn’t they be offering these services on their own? Anyone can help professional refugees to try to re-certify just by, at the very least, Googling how to do it and then making an effort.
Our group has even done this for Iraqi refugees who couldn’t get any help from their particular resettlement agencies. It really doesn’t need more funding, it just means that we use our time differently to help these refugees. Instead of spending a lot of time and effort directing them to a series of no-skill or low-skill jobs resettlement agencies could instead help the refugees to write a good resume, and then direct them to jobs related to their field and to places to get take classes to prepare for re-certification.
If they were thinking along these useful lines, instead of always just demanding more government funding, they would also direct professional refugees to resettlement sites where they could take higher level courses in their professional fields. For example, last year an Iraqi periodontist with a doctorate named Faiz Al Berqdar, 60, (he had an extensive collection of degrees, research articles and academic writings) was resettled to Salt Lake City by USCCB, and when he needed to go back to school to complete classes in areas where the U.S. considered his Iraqi education ”deficient” he learned that there was no dental college in Utah (here). He and his family then moved back to the Middle East where he immediately got an academic job in Syria. What sense does that make?
Posted in Boston, former Yugoslav republics, funding, government, HHS, International Institute of NE, Iraqi, IRC, Massachusetts, ORR, USCRI | Tagged: Bob Carey, Bosnia, Bosnian, Boston, Carolyn Benedict Drew, charities, charity, Congress, former Yugoslav republics, former Yugoslavia, government funding, HHS, International Institute of NE, International Rescue Committee, Iraqi, IRC, MA, Massachusetts, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, private funding, professional, professionals, public funding, recertification, refugee, refugees, resettlement, State Department, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 18, 2010
*UPDATE — July 16, 2010
Alejandro Mayorkas, director of Washington-based US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is urging refugee advocates to persuade Haitians who are eligible for temporary protected status to apply for it before the July 20 deadline (here).
Applications have been fewer than expected. As of this week, 45,680 Haitians nationwide had applied for temporary protected status, and 4,898 people, almost 11 percent, have been approved. From 70,000 to 100,000 people could be eligible for the status nationwide, he said.
…Money might also be an issue for many applicants eligible for protected status. Those ages 14 to 65 who wish to work must pay a total of $470. Low-income residents can apply for fee waivers.
…“The approval rate of fee waiver requests — when people submit a basis for that request — is very, very, very high.’’
One of the Haitian families that we helped apply for TPS requested a fee waiver and the USCIS granted it. It did require, however, listing all income and expenses and providing copies of documents to prove it, e.g. tax returns, copies of all monthly bills and expenses, birth certificates including an English translation, etc. For some unknown reason the USCIS approved half the family (father and three children) for the fee waiver, and sent back the applications for the mother and one of the daughters, so we had to resubmit the forms with new copies of all the documents. It took hours. The mother and daughter were then also approved.
Posted in Haitian, TPS (Temporary Protected Status), USCIS | Tagged: Alejandro Mayorkas, fee waiver, fee waivers, Haitian, refugee, refugees, temporary protected status, TPS, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 17, 2010
Church World Service and an interfaith coalition of organizations have called on Congress to appropriate “robust funding” for, among other things, refugee resettlement programs within the U.S. (here). Some of the other groups in the coalition include the Episcopal Church (which EMM is a part of), and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (one of the two churches that make up LIRS).
Among other things the interfaith coalition has recommended:
$415 million for refugee admissions in the Migration and Refugee Assistance account in FY2011
Additionally, the group asked for Congress to fund the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services at $987.9 million, or at minimum, the $877.9 million that President Obama requested for ORR services. Due to historic under-funding, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has been unable to adequately meet the needs of arriving refugees,” they said.
The levels the coalition is requesting, they say, would …”urgently needed housing assistance and support for the Matching Grant program, a welfare alternative that helps resettled refugees find employment within six months.”
The MRA account is the State Department’s refugee account, and has the domestic refugee resettlement funds. Whereas this Interfaith Coalition is asking Congress for $415 for the State Department’s domestic resettlement account, the State Department only asked for $377 million, up from $282,750 in FY2009, and an estimated $324,000 for FY2010 (here) when the State Dept. R&P grant to resettlement agencies was doubled!
This statement, “Due to historic under-funding, the Office of Refugee Resettlement has been unable to adequately meet the needs of arriving refugees”, is false. It assumes that the U.S. refugee resettlement program isn’t a public/private partnership and that the federal agencies must give funds for all needs. I think by now that we all know that isn’t true. The private resettlement agencies just like the easy federal funds, so they want more, without having to lift a finger to raise a decent amount of private funding to add to the public funding.
The focus on the Matching Grant program is also quite troubling, as it is ripe for abuse by refugee resettlement agencies. The Matching Grant program also has a number of troubling rules such as a requirement that refugees take the first job offered to them, even if the resettlement agency has directed them to a job that is completely inappropriate for supporting a family (while there are better-paying jobs in the community which refugees qualify for). Resettlement agencies may also match the ORR grant with only 20% cash and the rest of it may be donated stuff (in-kind assistance). This aspect of the program is under-monitored, with resettlement agencies regularly giving refugees dirty and broken junk, or just not giving items at all that they claim to give.
The Matching Grant program also encourages resettlement agencies to dump the refugees into unsustainable jobs so that they can keep the balance of the ORR grant money (they only have to give the refugee rent and monthly cash as long as the refugee remains unemployed).
It’s no wonder that the resettlement agencies and their friends in Congress and the federal oversight agencies want to expand the Matching Grant program. This would, unfortunately, be a disaster for refugees.
Posted in Congress, CWS, EMM, faith-based, funding, government, HHS, in-kind assistance, LIRS, Matching Grant program, Obama administration, ORR, PRM, State Department, USCCB, Volags (voluntary agencies) | Tagged: Church World Service, Congress, CWS, EMM, Health and Human Services, HHS, in-kind assistance, interfaith coalition, LIRS, Match Grant, Matching grant, Migration and Refugee Assistance account, MRA, Obama, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, private funding, public funding, refugees, resettlement, State Department, USCCB, volags | 2 Comments »
Christopher Coen
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