Archive for May, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 27, 2010
A U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary hearing took place on May 19, 2010 for the Refugee Protection Act of 2010.
Dan Glickman, President of Refugees International testified about various aspects of the bill including Section 21 which would require that the State Department’s R&P (Resettlement & Placement) per head refugee grant (for refugees’ first 30-90 days) be automatically increased yearly based on inflation and increases in the cost of living (here).
Glickman testified that:
“…Section 21 of the Refugee Protection Act of 2010 would require the Secretary of State to conduct, on an annual basis, a review of the Reception and Placement grant amount to ensure that it reflects the actual costs of resettlement during the first 30-90 days. The Secretary would then notify Congress of any changes…”
Does this mean that the federal government would now be expected to pay for ALL costs of the first stage of resettlement when for decades the program has claimed that it is a partnership between the government and private charitable groups? Currently, the so-called partnership supposedly requires that the private resettlement agencies give significant private resources to the refugee resettlement effort, although to what extent they do is unknown since they make little data public.
There is reason to believe, after analysing the resettlement agencies’ 990 forms, that many of them rely on the government for most of their funding, and not actually raising much private funding. (Check out our analysis of some of the LIRS affiliates’ funding in our Recommendations to the NSC’s inter-agency task force on refugee resettlement program reform, p.7, here).
Has Refugees International considered the possible dampening effect on resettlement agencies’ efforts to raise private funding for refugees if the R&P grant was automatically raised each year? What incentive would they have to raise funds for refugees if they had this mechanism to cover the absolute minimum funds necessary to resettle refugees into poverty, while covering their salaries and overhead? Is this really in the refugees’ interests?
Posted in Congress, funding, government, LIRS, NSC (National Security Council), public/private partnership, R&P, Refugees International, State Department | Tagged: Committee on the Judiciary, Congress, Dan Glickman, hearing, LIRS, National Security Council, NSC, R&P, refugee, Refugee Protection Act of 2010, refugees, Refugees International, Resettlement & Placement, Resettlement and Placement, Secretary of State, senate, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2010
Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh’s partnership with W&K Steel LLC is back under the microscope (here). Burmese refugees have allegedly been exploited, including being paid less than other workers for the same jobs, and being verbally abused (screamed at) everyday.
A union-backed effort to expose a local steel fabrication firm has state Sen. Jim Ferlo considering tighter standards for publicly backed contracts.
Since September, the Three Rivers Coalition for Justice and Ironworkers Local 3 have been leafletting the plant and job sites of Rankin-based W&K Steel LLC, and they say they have sought meetings with Urban Redevelopment Authority officials and Mayor Luke Ravenstahl. They allege a poor safety record, financial troubles and disparate treatment of refugees — charges the company’s owners vehemently deny.
Mr. Ferlo, D-Highland Park, is a member of the URA board, which backs local building projects, including some that use W&K’s steel. Though he has not done independent research on the company’s performance, he said the concerns of the coalition and union have illuminated a problem in URA-backed contracting.
“I think we want to not only achieve the moral high ground, but we also don’t want people victimized” while doing publicly backed work, he said Friday. “It’s not in the public’s interest to have [subcontractors] or prime [contractors] consistently involved in victimizing workers.”
…Two W&K fabricators, Aung Oo and Timothy Hand, went on strike last year, though they are not represented by a union. They’ve turned their strike into a public relations effort.Mr. Oo, a Burmese refugee, was part of a federal Department of Labor roundtable discussion on Wednesday on Asian-American and Pacific Islander labor problems. Mr. Hand has taken the case to Pittsburgh City Council.
Mr. Hand, 49, of North Huntingdon, said in an interview that he started working at W&K in 2002, and found it “pretty dirty” with “a lot of confusion,” but wasn’t too bothered by the situation until 2006. That’s when the company started bringing in refugees from Burma, after years of bringing in Eastern European and African refugees.
.
“I just saw [the Burmese refugees] being exploited,” he said. “They were getting screamed at every day. They are hard workers. They show up every day.
“Doing the same work, I was almost making double” what the refugees got, he said.
W&K executives said they employ refugees as part of enduring relationships with Jewish Family and Children’s Services and Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, which resettles them.
…The coalition points to 26 OSHA violations since 2002, and the 2008 death of an affiliate’s employee, Daniel Seighman, as evidence of unsafe conditions.
The Wilhelms counter that they are in the process of getting their safety program certified through the state. The death, said Mr. Wilhelm, was the result of a worker’s failure to tie off while working at a height. Online OSHA records show a $2,000 fine apparently driven by the death.
Company affiliates have had financial challenges, including a 2007 state tax lien for failure to pay $35,650 in corporate levies. One of its top managers pleaded guilty in 2007 to failure to carry workers’ compensation insurance at HBC Barge LLC, of Brownsville, a related firm.
Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh also recently crammed two Nepali Bhutanese refugee families into a single 2-3 bedroom apartment after which the father of one of the families committed suicide in the apartment building laundry room (
here). Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh has also repeatedly placed refugees in dilapidated apartments (
here). Burmese refugees were so distraught by conditions that they even protested the opening of Catholic Charities’ Welcome Center in Pittsburgh last November when Bishop David Zubik was blessing the new facility (
here).
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Catholic, Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, faith-based, HIAS, housing, overcrowding, housing, substandard, Jewish, Karen, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Jewish Family and Children's Services, USCCB | Tagged: Bishop David Zubik, Burma/Myanmar, Catholic Charities Diocese of Pittsburgh, exploitation, exploited, Jewish Family and Children's Services San Francisco, Karen, OSHA, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, refugee, refugees, W&K Steel | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 23, 2010
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, a USCRI affiliate (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, formerly known as IRSA), has been in the news lately due to an employee who stole $61,420 in legal-aid money intended for needy clients, presumably including refugee and/or other immigrant clients. Her scheme involved filling-out phony applications for security deposits and rent payments for clients and then giving checks to her friends and boyfriend who kicked 50% of the proceeds back to her (here and here).
Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) is in the business of giving free advice or representation to low-income people in 33 counties. When more than $60,000 is missing, it makes a dent.
Criminal complaints filed in Ramsey County District Court allege that a community worker for SMRLS, Tamara Nichole Collins, 36, of St. Paul, fraudulently issued checks to friends of hers from the SMRLS account. Her friends then cashed them and gave her half the money. The thefts, which happened between March 1, 2008, and Nov. 30, 2009, totaled $61,420.
…Jessie Nicholson, SMRLS’ chief executive officer, said the agency, which has an annual budget of about $8.5 million for its 10 offices, has been reimbursed for the thefts by its insurance company and has sent reimbursements to its funders.
Nicholson said Collins is no longer working at the agency.
The complaint gave this account:
Collins had money available to pay for security deposits and partial and full rent payments to keep clients from being homeless. She would fill out an application with the client’s name, the landlord’s name, address and Social Security number, and the amount of money needed. If the application was approved, a check would be written to the landlord.
The IRS notified SMRLS last October that the Social Security numbers submitted on federal tax forms did not match the person to whom the check was written. An investigation and audit allegedly showed that Collins issued checks to six phony landlords — her friends.
I see that this USCRI-affiliate didn’t even notice that money was missing, and was instead notified by the IRS that names on checks didn’t match the clients’ social security numbers. Exactly how are these USCRI affiliates run where this type of scheme could occur and nobody in the organization would even notice?
There have now been so many scandals involving USCRI affiliates that I think we can safely name the USCRI as the worst refugee resettlement network in the nation.
Posted in Minnesota, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, USCRI | Tagged: immigrant, immigrants, IRS, lavinia limon, Minnesota, MN, refugee, refugees, Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services, st paul, Tamara Nichole Collins, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 22, 2010
People in Ansonia, CT, outside of New Haven, are worrying that schools cannot handle an influx of refugees brought to the area by the USCRI’s International Institute of Connecticut (see the Valley Independent Sentinel article here). People voiced other concerns back on March 3 (here).
School officials are worried they won’t be able to adequately educate a group of refugees that have arrived in Ansonia from Nepal.
This week the city’s tax board recommended a zero-percent increase for the school district.
At a school board meeting Wednesday, school Superintendent Carol Merlone worried about the combination of low funding and refugee students in the district.
School officials said the school district only has one English as a Second Language teacher per school. They’re worried about the ESL teachers being overwhelmed due to the arrival of the refugee students who do not speak English.
While the new students have been welcomed with open arms into the district, “We don’t want to overburden the school system,” the superintendent said. “I’m worried about children getting gypped.”
Refugee families have been arriving in the lower Valley since March. In all, about 10 families are expected to arrive by June.
Merlone’s comments came after Jeremy Marshall, a case manager with the non-profit International Institute of Connecticut, made a presentation to the school board about his organization and the arriving families.
So far, 15 people have arrived in Ansonia, Marshall said, including eight children in the school district.
Another family is expected to arrive next week.
Many of the new residents have spent 20 years confined to refugee camps. Marshall urged the board to support the new arrivals.
“[The Nepalese] are very much dependent on some institution to help them out,” he said.
He said volunteers would be on hand so the school district wouldn’t have to should the responsibility alone.
Marshall’s organization uses several sources of funding, including government grants, to support the families as they transition to a new life in the U.S.
The goal is to make the families self-sufficient within six months.
“Within one year they can have a green card,” Marshall said.
School officials wanted to know why it seems all the families are arriving in Ansonia, where the school district already faces a number of challenges, including large class sizes.
To date, no refugee students have been placed in the neighboring Derby school district.
Marshall said there is an oversight committee has strict criteria in deciding where to place refugees. Number one on the list — “Housing rates have to be low,” he said.
Representatives from Marshall’s organization told the Valley Indy in March that they were looking to place people outside major cities. The refugees assimilate better in smaller communities that have accessible public transportation.
“There is an overflow of refugees already set up in Waterbury and Bridgeport,” Marshall told the school board.
While there is another refugee family due to arrive in Ansonia next week, Marshall said it is unclear whether more families will be coming to Ansonia.
About four members of the public spoke on the refugee issue. Most of the speakers expressed concerns about the situation.
Ken Plavnicky, co-chairman of Axe the Tax, a citizen group, said the city cannot afford to absorb the refugees.
“Bringing families into Ansonia is going to cost a lot of money, why couldn’t they reach out to a more wealthy community, such as Fairfield or Darien?” he asked.
Terri Goldson, the principal of John C. Mead School, asked the school board to “have an open mind and have an open heart,” concerning the refugees.
Of course USCRI’s International Institute of Connecticut lost its State Department refugee resettlement contract just two years ago in May 2008 due to repeated severe neglect of refugees, including placing Burmese refugee clients in poor housing, fractious relationships with volunteers, missed immunizations for refugee students, and insufficient help for refugees with daily tasks (here). The State Department inspected the agency in 2006 (here) and warned them to clean up their act, but apparently they were unable or unwilling to do so.
Then, why are they resettling refugees again when they proved repeatedly that they could not be entrusted to care for vulnerable refugee clients? It makes me think that the State Department’s cancellation (now revealed as a temporary revocation) of the Institute’s contract was just a dodge to divert attention away from this agency after the series of newspaper articles documenting the repeated neglect of refugees, and do little government oversight agencies (see a series of articles under CT in our Document Library page, here).
By the way, in 2007 the International Institute of Connecticut board of directors approved the agency’s executive director, Myra Oliver (now deceased), paying herself $99,893 (see 990 form), while she placed her refugee clients in squalor, even though the State Department had just admonished the group for doing the same thing just a year earlier. In 2006 the board approved payment to Oliver of $100,016 (see 990). According to these 990 forms the International Institute of Connecticut in 2006 was getting 90% of its operating funds from the government, and 87% in 2007. So the great “public/private partnership” was a 9 to 1 split in this case, with refugees going wanting for basics while the board paid the executive director handsomely with our public funds.
In addition, the current Board of Directors officers listed at the group’s website (here) are the same people as listed on the 2008 form 990 when the Institute lost its refugee contract due to the abuses — Sharon Kish – President, Robert Maresca, Esq.- Vice President, Fr. Richard Ryscavage- Secretary, and Jorge Atencio.
So why did the International Institute of Connecticut get their refugee resettlement contract reinstalled so soon and with the same people overseeing it? Why should we ever trust this group again?
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Connecticutt, education, ESL & ELL, household items, missing or broken, housing, substandard, International Institute of Connecticut, moratorium / restriction, neglect, Nepali Bhutanese, New Haven, school for refugee children, State Department, USCRI | Tagged: Ansonia, Axe the Tax, Connecticut, CT, ESL, Esq.- Vice, Jorge Atencio., Myra Oliver, nepalese, New haven, refugee, refugees, restriction, Richard Ryscavage, Robert Maresca, school, Sharon Kish, State Department, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 21, 2010
Florida’s Supreme Court may soon be deciding on whether the state has violated its constitutional ban on state money going to “any church, sect, or religious denomination, or in aid of any sectarian institution” (here). The “no-aid” provision, a so-called Blaine amendment, banning this practice has been in the Florida Constitution since 1885, although Florida has applied it loosely. Florida is among 39 states with this type of provision.
A century-old provision of the Florida Constitution may soon be dusted off for the first time before the state Supreme Court, with the fate of millions of dollars in state funding to religious organizations hanging in the balance.
The state’s First District Court of Appeal is asking justices to decide whether Florida has violated its constitutional ban on state money going to “any church, sect, or religious denomination, or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
The provision has been in the Florida Constitution since 1885, approved during an era of sweeping, anti-Catholic fervor. Florida is among 39 states with some version of a “no-aid” provision, a so-called Blaine amendment, named for the 19th Century Maine senator who promoted such prohibitions inspired by fear of a rising immigrant population.
While Florida embraced the ban a century ago, most experts say it has been applied loosely.
Millions of state dollars are budgeted each year for programs serving foster children, inmates, and low-income and elderly Floridians that are provided by religious-affiliated organizations.
Some fear the high court could put the brakes to that.
“Everybody is waiting and watching this case,” said Sheila Hopkins, an associate director with the Florida Catholic Conference. “Our charities have never believed in giving people a loaf of bread and then making everybody pray. We do social work.
“But a lot in the future may depend on how the court looks at this. It’d be devastating if these services were lost,” she added.
But would these services be “lost”, as she claims, or would they just instead be contracted to groups that do not use these government funds for religious purposes? She claims they only do “social work” and that they don’t proselytize, but proselytizing is just one way in which these groups can use public money for religious purposes.
What about Catholic Charities in Houston neglecting Iraqi refugees who are gay, while giving full services to so-called “families” (heterosexual refugees) here? What about World Relief using government refugee program dollars to pray at staff meeting, and then using that as an excuse to discriminate in hiring Arabic interpreters who are Muslim (here)? How about Catholic Charities of Washington DC discriminating in hiring based on religious belief (here)? None of that is proselytizing per se, but it sure does force all of us to pay for other’s people’s religious beliefs and practices. No thank you.
I think this case is interesting though because it demonstrates how government institutions simply ignore constitutional provisions and laws as they wish. The U.S. refugee program could not run, as it now does, with the regular neglect and abuse of refugees, if the refugee resettlement agencies and their government oversight friends actually abided by constitutions, rules, laws, guidelines, and regulations. The current system we have in place is essentially and old boy network program in which cronies inside and outside of government work together to fulfill their own interests while ignoring the interests of the public and the refugees. Laws and requirements are simply shunted aside at will when they interfere with these people’s interests.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, Florida, funding, neglect, religion, World Relief | Tagged: Blaine amendment, catholic charities, church, church and state, constitution, faith-based, Florida, Florida Catholic Conference, florida Supreme Court, no-aid, proselytize, public funding, refugee, refugees, religion, religious, sectarian, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2010
A Globe-Gazette editorial attempts to link the recent shut down of two refugee resettlement agencies with the deplorable case of immigrant child abuse at the now defunct Agriprocessors slaughterhouse (here).
Child after immigrant child took the witness stand in Waterloo last week to describe abusive working conditions at the former Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville.
.
Fourteen- and 15-year-olds testified about back-breaking, low-paying work for Sholom Rubashkin, the former Agriprocessors CEO charged with 83 misdemeanor state child labor law violations. He already has been convicted of massive financial fraud.
He has yet to be tried for immigration law violations federal authorities filed after the biggest immigration raid in Iowa history May 12, 2008. Federal agents removed 390 undocumented workers from the plant, shutting it down…
This is the context for the regrettable closing of Iowa’s Bureau of Refugee Services, the state’s No. 1 manager of legal immigration. Since 1975, this bureau brought 28,000 legal immigrants to Iowa and supported another 10,000 who moved to the state after legally entering the country.
…The U.S. State Department ended its $134,000 annual appropriation for the state office and is choosing to support only national, non-profit resettlement programs.
Also, the state’s No. 2 agency for refugee resettlement is shutting down. Lutheran Social Services of Iowa is ending its resettlement partnership with Catholic Charities that welcomed 483 refugees last year.
That leaves only Catholic Charities, which generously decided Wednesday to continue this ministry alone.
Of course, the national refugee resettlement volag Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), far from condemning the abuses of young immigrants at Agriprocessors, has gone out of its way to call for “fairness” (here) in the sentencing of the diabolical former owner of Agriprocessors, Sholom Rubashkin, whose second trial, this time on child labor violation, was delayed after he was apparently bitten by someone in jail (here).
In the meantime the Globe-Gazette editorial attempts to sell us on the concept that meatpacking plants in Iowa would not be able to run were it not for immigrant labor.
…[the immigration raid on Agriprocessors proved] once again that Iowa’s agriculture economy cannot function without immigrant labor.The work force at every meatpacking plant in the state affirms it. So do the past three Iowa governors, who agree legal immigration is essential for the state’s economic growth, not simply “important” or “a key factor.” While in office, Govs. Terry Branstad, Tom Vilsack and Chet Culver all said Iowa simply cannot grow without legal immigration.
…If history is an indicator, thousands of illegal immigrants will continue to be drawn into the traps set by those like Rubashkin, who federal and state authorities say built a business around exploited illegal immigrants.
Refugee resettlement is an honorable part of Iowa government and faith mission history. It also is a vital part of the state’s economic development.
Isn’t that dangerous when state elites decide that refugee resettlement is not a matter of human rights, rather, is an opportunity to exploit labor for the “economic development” of the state? Are these the same people who look the other way when refugee resettlement agencies, landlords, and employers neglect and abuse refugees?
I guess the editorial board also never considered that the ruthless consolidation in the meatpacking business, and the resulting plunge in wages paid, not to mention the speeding up of the slaughtering process and resultant extreme abuse of livestock, was never a real necessity but was the result of our government’s decision to let private industry do whatever it wanted to do (witness how that same philosophy and process has worked in our financial industry, oil industry, etc.).
By the way, we also just came across photographs of housing conditions for immigrants of the former Agriprocessors (here). As you can see conditions somewhat approximate some of the horrendous and deplorable housing that refugee resettlement agencies have placed refugees in around the country.
Pictures of Agriprocessors’ “campus-style” housing are posted immediately below. Each worker paid $100 per week for a mattress on the floor. Some of these homes had 10 to 12 workers sleeping in them. Many were unfurnished:
This last picture is a mattress and box spring (no bed frame) in a laundry closet. The open pipe on the right is a dryer vent. On the left are the hookups for the washer and dryer.
Workers complained of being assigned a mattress on the floor of moldy basements and of having 3 and sometimes 4 workers per room, 10 to 12 per house.
Each worker paid $100 per week, usually deducted from their paychecks.
Posted in State Department, ICE, HIAS, Jewish, Iowa, meatpacking industry, housing, substandard, Lutheran Services in Iowa | Tagged: IA, State Department, refugee, refugees, catholic charities, resettlement, meatpacking, Agriprocessors, Iowa, HIAS, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Postville, immigrants, Sholom Rubashkin, Des Moines, Bureau of Refugee Services, child labor law, immigration raid, Lutheran Social Services of Iowa | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2010
The Christian Century has taken a stand against World Relief’s discrimination in hiring (here). World Relief recently formalized a hiring policy that prohibits the hiring of non-Christians. (See our earlier posts on this issue here, here, here, and here).
Iraqi immigrant Saad Mohammad Ali worked for six months as a volunteer with World Relief, helping the nonprofit Christian-based agency resettle Iraqi refugees in the Seattle area. Apparently he was good at his work, for his superiors at World Relief encouraged him to apply for a job as a caseworker. But then, according to the Seattle Times, the agency called to say it could not hire him after all because he is not a Christian.
Is that a clear case of religious discrimination? Or is World Relief entitled as a Christian organization to hire employees based on religious beliefs?
Before you answer that question, consider this part of the story: over 65 percent of World Relief’s budget comes from federal funds.
That fact should clinch the question. World Relief is perfectly free as a religious organization to hire only Christians. But if it receives government money, it should abide by U.S. laws against discrimination in hiring. Taxpayer money—including Mohammad Ali’s tax money—is supporting World Relief. The government has chosen to give WR funds not because WR is a Christian organization (that would be a clear violation of the First Amendment) but because it provides a social service. It is discriminatory for Mohammad Ali to be denied on religious grounds a job that the government funds and his own tax money helps support.
Unfortunately, the rules on hiring practices are murky since George W. Bush in 2007 declared that religious organizations that receive federal funds can hire on the basis of faith. Barack Obama promised to reverse that directive, but he has not made good on the promise, and his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has carefully sidestepped the issue.
Overturning Bush’s directive need not mean overturning the tradition of government partnerships with religious-based nonprofits like Catholic Charities or Lutheran Social Services. Those agencies have long operated out of a sense of religious mission, and they pick their top leaders and board members on the basis of commitment to that mission. But in running their everyday operations that rely on government funds—in hiring social workers or translators, for example—those agencies abide by government rules against discrimination. That basis for partnership both protects religious freedom and respects religious identity—and helps religious organizations be clear about why they are getting government dollars.
Of course World Relief has also admitted that it conducts prayer (a clear form of worship) on taxpayer-funded refugee program time — prohibited by current regulations. We wrote to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in HHS and the State Department about this violation of regulations, but they have not responded.
Posted in Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, Iraqi, Islamic, public/private partnership, religion, Washington, World Relief | Tagged: catholic charities, Christian, discrimination in hiring, faith-based, federal funds, George W. Bush, Lutheran social services, Muslim, public funds, religious, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 13, 2010
Catholic Charities Diocese of Des Moines has decided to continue resettling refugees in Iowa (here and here). This decision comes on the heels of Lutheran Services in Iowa deciding to stop refugee resettlement and the State Department pulling funding from the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services (an Iowa state agency that was long given an acceptation to the requirement that refugee agencies be non-profits and add private funding to resettlement efforts).
According to the Des Moines Register:
Catholic Charities decided Wednesday it will push on alone in resettling refugees, extending Iowa’s history as a sanctuary for refugees from war-torn, poverty-stricken nations.
The group’s decision comes months after the only other organizations that had been resettling refugees in Iowa – Lutheran Services in Iowa and the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services – pulled out of resettlement. That put Iowa’s future as a refugee haven in limbo.
Catholic Charities will resettle between 100 and 130 people annually.
That’s far fewer than the more than 900 refugees resettled in Iowa during the last fiscal year, when Catholic Charities and Lutheran Services jointly resettled refugees through Refugee Cooperative Services.
Lutheran Services said it could not afford to continue its program.
Catholic Charities said that it is facing a “financial burden” due to refugees not being able to find jobs in the current economy, and the group having to pay their rent for a longer time. This, even though the State Department doubled per capita (per refugee) funding as of January 1, 2010. (The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services via their Office of Refugee Resettlement also provides refugees with up to 8 months of cash assistance to help pay rent, as well as a large array of other refugee funding).
If Catholic Charities had stopped resettlement – and that was a possibility, given the financial burden – it would have ended a prolific era of refugee resettlement in Iowa. Thirty thousand refugees have made Iowa home since 1975
….Refugee resettlement makes up about 17 percent of the work of Des Moines’ Catholic Charities, or $450,000 of a $2.7 million budget.
The refugee expenses include administrative costs as well as direct assistance such as help paying rent. Catholic Charities will hire three employees for refugee resettlement, which entails assisting refugees with housing, transportation, learning American culture and finding jobs.
Catholic Charities will focus on receiving refugees with Iowa ties instead of so-called “free cases” – refugees with no familial ties in the United States.
“We’re taking a risk, but we’ve been really careful to set this up so it will be successful,” said Nancy Galeazzi, executive director of Catholic Charities. “We have had to be smart about what we can handle. But it’s the right thing to do.”
The organization will benefit from a decision this year by the Department of State to increase the money it directs to resettling agencies. Instead of getting $900 per refugee, resettling agencies now get $1,800.
One continuing concern is refugees’ difficulty in finding jobs in the sour economy. In that case, Catholic Charities continues to pay their rent. But that’s built into the plan, Galeazzi said.
Sol Varisco-Santini, who heads refugee resettlement for Catholic Charities, recently sat in on the weekly resettlement meeting in Washington, D.C., and watched agencies who resettle refugees in the United States allocate the week’s 2,100 arrivals. She wanted Iowa to still be part of that equation. To do that, Catholic Charities decided to focus on fewer refugees.
“One hundred thirty is much more manageable for Iowa than 900,” Varisco-Santini said. “Even though the percentage of people we’re helping is very small, we think it is worth it.”
The meeting she sat in on is the weekly meeting at the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) in Arlington, Virginia. The RPC is a State Department agency at which the private refugee resettlement agencies are allowed to decide where incoming refugees are placed in the U.S. and who will take which refugee “free cases” (refugees with no family or sponsors in the U.S.). Resettlement agencies often fail to mention this process via the RPC, and instead tell refugees, community members and the media that they have no control over how many or which refugees they resettle locally.
The article also refers to the chance that refugees will continue to arrive in Iowa via “secondary migration” (after first being resettled to other states, and then migrating on their own to Iowa).
John Wilken, director of the Iowa Bureau of Refugee Services, applauded Catholic Charities’ decision to continue resettling refugees. But he predicted a rise in secondary migration – refugees who resettle outside Iowa, then move here to be close to family. Wilken estimates some 1,000 additional refugees came to Iowa through secondary migration in 2009.
“When you take a state with a long history of resettlement and reduce its capacity by 80 percent, what do you do with all the cases who wanted to come here but can’t?” Wilken said. “The fact our numbers are down here does not stop the individuals being processed from getting resettled. They’ll just be assigned somewhere else.”
Posted in Catholic Charities, Catholic Charities Diocese of Des Moines, faith-based, funding, Iowa, LIRS, Lutheran Services in Iowa, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), State Department, Sudanese, USCCB, Vietnamese | Tagged: $1800, 8 months, Bureau of Refugee Services, cash assistance, catholic charities, Des Moines, Diocese of Des Moines, free case, Health and Human Services, IA, Iowa, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, per capita, refugee, Refugee Processing Center, refugees, resettlement, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), State Department | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 12, 2010
The Erie Bureau of Police have put out a brochure written by the U.S. Department of Justice that explains the process of a traffic stop (here).
“In a lot of cases, the first and only contact citizens have with the police department is a traffic stop,” Erie Bureau of Police Chief Steve Franklin said. “And in some ways, that makes it dangerous. Anything can happen.”
To reduce the risk, the bureau has printed 1,000 copies of a new how-to: a brochure that explains the process of a traffic stop.
Much of it is obvious:
- If stopped by an officer, do not try to exit your vehicle.
- Keep your hands in plain view.
- Turn on your hazards and interior lights.
- Do not be surprised if a second patrol car arrives. That’s often a matter of routine.
…[Franklin] also plans to meet with the agencies that guide Erie’s refugee populations. Those groups often have much different expectations of police, said Joe Haas, the executive director of Catholic Charities Counseling and Adoption Services.
“Some of them come from countries where law enforcement was a source of brutality,” Haas said. “They don’t always understand that the police are a source of good in the United States.”
A U.S. Dept. of Justice mediator suggested the brochure after being called in to mediate the outcry from the community when the community caught Erie police laughing about the murder of a local resident.
The content may be straightforward, but the development of the brochure was anything but: It started, indirectly, with the 2009 death of Rondale Jennings Sr.
Jennings, 31, was shot during an argument outside a bar. A few weeks later, one of the police officers who responded to that 911 call was in another bar, joking about Jennings’ death throes.
The officer — James Cousins II — was suspended after his comments were posted online, in a video on YouTube.
Posted in Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Erie, Dept. of Justice, Erie, Pennsylvania, police, safety | Tagged: Archdiocese of Erie, brochure, catholic charities, mediator, Pennsylvania, police, police brutality, refugee, refugees, traffic stop, U.S. Department of Justice, USCCB | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 5, 2010
Refugee Advocate Nkazi Sinandile was in her 16th day of a hunger strike last friday in Albuquerque (here and here).
State and city lawmakers have met with a woman who was on day 16 of her hunger strike Friday.Advocate Nkazi Sinandile, known as Mama Kazi, is trying to raise awareness for people who left their countries to escape violence and now live in Albuquerque. She says refugees are trapped in poverty because they can’t speak English and don’t have much job experience.
“I said enough is enough. When I see people digging for used clothes and household items. And a lot of them wasting away in their homes without jobs,” she said.
I guess the first question is why are refugees needing to dig for used clothes and household items if resettlement agencies are required to provide these items? These items are supposedly minimum-required items of the agencies’ State Department refugee contracts (see Operational Guidance here). Is Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fé not meeting even minimum standards even though the per capita (per refugee) payment they receive from the State Department was recently doubled to $1800?
Marshall Jensen, the director of the Center for Refugee Settlement and Support for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fé is also falsely claiming that refugees can only get 4 months of assistance, when in fact they get a minimum of eight months of assistance.
The man who provides resettlement services to all exiles who move to New Mexico said many refugee families struggle to make ends meet.
“I would say, in many respects, the system is broken, particularly with the recession,” said Marshall Jensen, the director of the Center for Refugee Settlement and Support for Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.
Catholic Charities is contracted by the State Department to provide refugee resettlement services. For many families, Jensen said federal money runs out in four months.
“Most people can’t attain self-sufficiency in 120 days. The policy we envisioned isn’t working. Most people need additional support,” Jensen said.
Since Mr. Jenson well knows how much assistance refugees receive I can only surmise that he is deliberately lying to minimize his agency’s responsibilities and to justify increasing government spending for the refugee program. The resettlement agencies and their friends in the federal government agencies are trying to increase the budget for the ORR (here). Most of the time when you read a media article about refugee resettlement you will find that the resettlement agencies and the state refugee coordinators will lie about the public financing or at least attempt to obfuscate the financing and responsibilities of those involved in resettlement. There is obvious coordination in this attempt to deceive the public.
Posted in Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, clothes, Cooperative Agreement, faith-based, household items, missing or broken, New Mexico, Operational Guidance, ORR, State Department | Tagged: $1800, Advocate, Albuquerque, Catholic Charities in the Archdiocese of Santa Fe, Center for Refugee Settlement and Support, clothes, contract, household items, hunger strike, minimum required, minimum standards, New Mexico, Nkazi Sinandile, NM, Operational Guidance, ORR, refugee, refugees, santa fe, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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