Archive for the ‘Obama administration’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 26, 2012
In 2010, about 3,500 lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers are also entering the country.Most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, making sensitive resettlement services trickier to apply. In Philadelphia the Nationalities Service Center is resettling some of these refugees. An article in the Philadelphia Daily News explains:
…refugees classified as lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) [are being] resettled in Philadelphia by the Nationalities Service Center, the city’s largest refugee-resettlement agency…
…Until recent years, LGBT refugees in the U.S. were more likely to identify their persecution as ethnic, religious or political, said Juliane Ramic, the NSC’s director of social services.
On Dec. 6, President Obama issued a presidential memorandum directing the first-ever U.S. government strategy dedicated to combating human-rights abuses against LGBT people abroad. On the same day, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke in Geneva about the need to protect LGBT people. “In many ways, they are an invisible minority,” she said. “They are arrested, beaten, terrorized, even executed.”
The NSC in Philadelphia, along with representatives from the Chicago-based Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, conducted training to help ensure that refugee-resettlement agencies and other service providers understand the vulnerabilities of LGBT refugees and asylees before, during and after resettlement.
Because most LGBT people who come here as refugees or seeking asylum don’t identify as LGBT, reliable statistics on their numbers are hard to come by. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not identify or track LGBT refugees, and information on sexual orientation or gender identity rarely is reflected in refugees’ files, according to the Heartland Alliance.
In 2010, about 3,500 LGBT refugees were resettled in the U.S. – including about 125 in Pennsylvania – and about 1,000 LGBT asylum seekers entered the country, the Heartland Alliance estimates… Read more here
Posted in Heartland Alliance, LGBT refugees, Nationalities Service Center, Obama administration, Philadelphia | Tagged: gay, glbt, lesbian, lgbt, lgbti, Nationalities Service Center, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, transgendered | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 17, 2012
The near stoppage in the federal government’s issuing of Special Immigrant Visas for Iraqis last year seems to finally be ending. At least 715 special immigrant visas have been issued since October, which is more than all the SIVs issued in the last fiscal year. Resettlement of the broader Iraqi refugee community, however, is still at a near standstill. An article at USA Today explains:
…The Obama administration says it has made tweaks in how it is vetting Iraqis applying to a U.S. government resettlement program, leading to more former military interpreters and U.S. embassy workers being resettled in the USA in the first half of fiscal year 2012 than all of last year.
At least 715 special immigrant visas have been issued since October, surpassing the 706 visas that were issued for all of FY 2011, according to State Department data provided to USA TODAY. The special immigrant visa [SIV] is available to Iraqis that had worked for the U.S. government during the war, and had come under serious threat because they assisted America…
…White House and agency officials won’t talk about the additional security measures they’ve put in place or what changes they’ve recently made to speed up the vetting in recent months…
…Top administration officials—including White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough—have dedicated themselves to fixing the dramatic slowdown in resettlement, Blinken said.
“We owe these people,” Blinken said. “If we don’t deal with this problem, it will have a chilling effect on the willingness of people around the world to work with us, to cooperate with our missions.”
While resettlement of Iraqis eligible for the SIV program has picked up over the last six months, the State Department is still far behind the pace it set in 2009 and 2010, when 2,843 and 2,042 SIVs were issued in the respective years.
Resettlement of the broader Iraqi refugee community—which includes many former helpers to the U.S. military and diplomats–has grinded to a near halt. Only 1,861 refugees have been resettled over the last five months compared to 9,388 in FY 2011 and 18,000 in FY 2010, according to the State Department… Read more here
Posted in Iraqi, Obama administration, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants, State Department | Tagged: interpreters, Iraqi, refugees, resettlement, SIV, Special Immigrant Visa | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 5, 2012
A senior Obama administration official says that intelligence indicates the security threat is much broader than the two Iraqi refugees arrested in May in Bowling Green, Ky., and accused of plotting to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq. The Obama administration is still trying to come up with a solution that balances national security with its moral obligation to assist Iraqis who cannot safely live in their country. The UNHCR thinks the security net is set too wide. An article in USA Today discusses the issue:
…WASHINGTON – The Obama administration has dramatically slowed the resettlement of Iraqi refugees — including former U.S. military translators and embassy workers — in the midst of growing concerns about al-Qaeda’s potential ties with some asylum seekers, an administration official says.
Two Iraqi refugees who resettled in the United States in 2009 were arrested in May in Bowling Green, Ky., and are accused of plotting to send weapons and cash to al-Qaeda in Iraq.
The senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, says that intelligence indicates the threat is much broader than the two refugees…
…“That threat stream led us to re-examine our vetting process for this population and really all of the refugee population,” the official said…
…In September, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told a Senate panel that security checks have been expanded and that more than 57,000 who were already in the United States have been revetted…
…The details of what the enhanced security checks entail are not shared publicly, but refugee information is likely being checked against security, forensic and intelligence databases that were not among those covered by the other security checks, according to the UNHCR…
…”Of course we support the U.S. and all countries having security checks,” UNHCR spokeswoman Charity Tooze said. “It seems that in this instance the net is so wide a huge amount of people who we don’t see as a security threat are getting caught in it.”…
…The Obama administration has held several interagency meetings on the issue since last summer and is trying to come up with a solution that balances national security with its moral obligation to assist Iraqis who cannot safely live in their country, administration officials say…Read more here
Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Iraqi, Obama administration, security/terrorism, UNHCR | Tagged: Al Qaeda, Iraq, national security, Obama administration, security, terrorism, UNHCR | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 7, 2012
Trudy Rubin writing for The Philadelphia Inquirer speculates about the failure of the US government to issue the visas it promised to Iraqis who risked their lives to help us. She thinks that the Obama administration – and the Republicans – have decided not to bring more Iraqis into this country in an election year. The supposed reason for the near halt in security clearances is the two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky accused of having terrorist connections. Yet, these two never worked for Americans and those who did, and who are now stuck, went through many security checks before getting their jobs.
Last week, I spoke on the PBS “NewsHour” about Iraqis who worked for our civilians and military before we left the country – and who now face death threats because we betrayed them…
…How can we get the U.S. government to issue the visas it promised to Iraqis who risked their lives to help us?
I’m ashamed to admit that the U.S. government has abandoned these people. No one seems eager to bring more Iraqis into this country in an election year.
President Obama has failed to keep his 2007 campaign pledge to rescue these Iraqis. A group of concerned senators, mostly Democrats, including Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, has made inquiries, but gotten no answers from Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta or Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano. Nor has a peep been heard on behalf of the [Iraqi interpreters] from Republican senators who backed our war in Iraq.
State Department officials say they’re working hard to expedite the visa process. Yet the number of visas for Iraqis who helped us slowed to a trickle just when they were most urgently needed, as U.S. troops quit Iraq…
Official figures show that 39,000 Iraqis (including family members) are in the pipeline in the Direct Access program for Iraqis who worked with us. Only 153 of these visas were issued in December. There are about 15,000 (not including family) in the pipeline for the Special Immigrant Visa program. Only 50 SIVs were issued last month.
The supposed reason for the freeze is new security regulations imposed after two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky were accused of having terrorist connections. But these bad apples never worked for Americans. Those who did went through numerous security checks before getting their jobs… Read more here
Posted in Bowling Green, Dept of Homeland Security, Iraqi, Kentucky, Obama administration, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants, State Department | Tagged: 2012 election, Bob Casey, Iraqis, Obama, refugees, Republicans, resettlement, security, SIV, Special Immigrant Visa | 8 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 2, 2012
The Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project has ideas for clearing the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) backlog. In addition to the Guam option the group suggests that the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) develop a formal expedite procedure for applicants facing immediate danger, and that the DHS use more resources to clear the security check backlog. (How about shifting some of the billions of DHS dollars wasted on the states with little accountability over how lawmakers spent the money, rather than dumping more public resources down the DHS black hole?) An Op-Ed in The Boston Herald addresses the subject:
…Unless Washington acts to clear the backlog on their visa applications, many may die at the hands of al-Qaeda in Iraq or anti-American militias. Many more will languish as refugees. It does not need to be this way…
…There are steps the Obama administration could take now. First, Homeland Security needs more resources to clear the security check backlog. Second, a formal expedite procedure should be developed for applicants facing immediate danger. Third, there should be a clear process to appeal an incorrect or arbitrary decision. An SIV applicant who is now rejected is told only that there is some “derogatory information” in their file and is barred from appealing or addressing this “information,” even in the case of applicants with nine U.S. military officers recommending them.
If it is not possible to immediately clear the backlog or expedite the cases of our allies still trapped in Iraq, a more drastic solution is necessary: an airlift to Guam…
…Guamian politicians have already expressed support for the idea… Read more here
Posted in Afghan, Dept of Homeland Security, funding, Iraqi, Obama administration, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: DHS.Iraqi.Afghan, Guam, Homeland Security, Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, refugees, resettlement, security clearance, SIV, Special Immigrant Visa | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 5, 2011
President Obama has nominated Anne Richard for assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. The revolving door between the federal government oversight agencies and their private contractors never seems to stop. A blurb in Foreign Policy announces the nomination:
…Obama…nominated Anne Richard for assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration, replacing Eric Schwartz. Richard is currently vice president of government relations and advocacy for the International Rescue Committee. From 1999 to 2001, she was director of the office of resources, plans and policy at the State Department. From 1997 to 1999, she was deputy chief financial officer of the Peace Corps.
Posted in Ann Richard, Assistant Secretary of the PRM, IRC, Obama administration, PRM, State Department | Tagged: Anne Richard, Bureau of Population Refugee and Migration, International Rescue Committee, IRC, PRM, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 24, 2011
A columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Senior Obama administration officials have told her that no airlift to Guam being considered for our Iraqi friends waiting on US special immigrant visas. Instead they say that there are top-level meetings dedicated to getting the SIV backlog cleared “within months” – and that efforts to clear the backlog will become more intense as the end of the year approaches. Trudy Rubin’s article is found in the Charlotte Observer:
In September 2007, Barack Obama made a stump speech berating the Bush team for breaking faith with Iraqis who had helped Americans.
“One tragic outcome of this war,” said Obama, “is that the Iraqis who stood with America – the interpreters, embassy workers, and subcontractors – are being targeted for assassination. … And yet our doors are shut.
“That is not how we treat our friends. That is not who we are as Americans.”
…In 2008, Congress passed legislation calling for 25,000 special immigrant visas, or SIVs, to be issued over a five-year period – to Iraqis whose lives were endangered because they’d worked for U.S. soldiers or civilians. The law’s criteria were so arduous that only about 3,600 have been issued; at least 1,500 are pending a decision.
What’s worse, the numbers have slowed to a trickle just as we’re departing. Only 10 SIVs were issued in August. The preliminary figure for September is 46. At that rate, it will be years before the backlog is cleared…
…Senior administration officials tell me of top-level meetings dedicated to getting the SIV backlog cleared – “within months.” I believe they are sincere, but the numbers aren’t moving.
Too many agencies are involved, and no senior White House official seems seized with this issue. (Where, I wonder, is the push from the National Security Council’s Samantha Power, who once wrote so eloquently on Iraqi refugees?)…
…There is one obvious way to clear the logjam: an airlift to remove our Iraqi friends from danger.
There is plenty of precedent for such an airlift. In 1975, after initially abandoning massive numbers of our South Vietnamese allies, Gerald Ford finally authorized a massive airlift to evacuate them to Guam and, eventually, to the United States.
In 1996, Bill Clinton ordered Operation Pacific Haven, which flew 6,000 Iraqi Kurds and other opposition activists from Iraqi Kurdestan to Guam, after Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded the region. If Obama ordered a similar airlift, security checks could also be conducted in Guam.
There are more recent precedents, too. The Poles, Danes, and Australians airlifted their Iraqi staff out of the country; after the massacre in Basra, the British returned and flew out endangered staff.
Are we less honorable than the Poles, Danes, Australians, and Brits? I’ll hold off on an answer. Yet, senior administration officials tell me no airlift is being considered…
…Administration officials also tell me that efforts to clear the backlog will become more intense as the end of the year approaches. But if those efforts fail, it may be too late to organize an airlift.
In 2007, Obama said we had a “moral obligation” to those Iraqis who helped us. History will judge him on how he honors that pledge. Read more here
Posted in Iraqi, Obama administration, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: airlift, embassy workers, Guam, interpreters, Iraqis, Obama, refugees, resettlement, SIV, special immigrant visas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 29, 2011
In this week of federal debt trauma in walks an employee of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to tell us how federal employees at his agency get overtime pay in exchange for not working. But of course all of us who care about refugees and immigrants, for the human beings they are, already know this about government agency workers, as well as their friends in private industry at the resettlement agencies. Many of them do whatever they want to do, and they suffer no consequences whatsoever. That is why we so desperately need passage of the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. Read more in Joe Davidson’s Washington Post column.
During a period when some in Congress and their related policy wonks think federal employees are overpaid, here comes Christian Sanchez, a Border Patrol agent who says he was punished for refusing overtime pay.
His bosses suggested that he get psychological help.
Instead, Sanchez has become a whistleblower, and on Friday he plans to tell gathering on Capitol Hill that he was retaliated against because he would not take overtime for doing no work.
Sanchez is an example of what the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower advocacy organization, calls “pocketbook whistleblowers.” They allegedly have suffered retaliation for actions that could save the government money.
This emphasis on guarding Uncle Sam’s pocketbook allows whistleblower advocates to broaden the appeal of legislation designed to expand legal protections for employees who disclose government waste, fraud and abuse. Supporting whistleblowers becomes more than helping individual employees who have been mistreated by the system — it becomes into an act of fiscal responsibility.
That approach could increase chances for the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act. It’s come close to passage during the many years it has lingered in Congress, but proponents have not been able to push it across the finish line.
In a letter last month to President Obama and Congress, a group of federal whistleblowers urged them to approve the legislation, telling them that “you have allowed potentially billions of tax dollars to be wasted because all federal workers know they cannot speak up without engaging in professional suicide.”
Sanchez is speaking up, and he has paid a price.
There is little work to do at the Port Angeles, Wash., station, where he is assigned, he said. He calls it a “black hole” where agents have “no purpose, no mission.”
“The worst fraud on taxpayers is that we are getting paid overtime not to work,” Sanchez said in a prepared statement. When he first started working at the station, “I noticed it was common practice for everyone to get paid overtime not to work… Read more here
Our own experience with Customs and Border Protection also demonstrated how completely corrupt and debased that federal agency is. Before either the Left or the Right try to spin this case for their own interests, I’d like to remind everyone that for decades both the Democrats and the Republicans have repeatedly contributed to corruption by installing their own cronies in the federal agencies and courts, while turning a blind eye to the damage these people have done to the people and the nation.
I nominate Christian Sanchez as hero of the month. It helps to restore my faith in humanity when I see that our country still has people like this among our ranks.
Posted in Congress, funding, Government Accountability Project, immigration services, Obama administration, openess and transparency in government, police, revolving door, U.S. Customs & Border Protection, Washington | Tagged: Border Patrol, Christian Sanchez, Congress, Customs and Border Protection, Democrats, federal government, Government Accountability Project, immigrants, Port Angeles, refugees, Republicans, Washington, whistleblower, Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 13, 2011
Iraqis who worked for the US government and its contractors, and therefore whom are eligible for the special immigrant visa, are finding themselves still trapped in Iraq as the American military readies for a pullout at the end of this year. During nearly the past four years, however, the US government has issued only about 7,000 special immigrant visas to eligible Iraqis – in a program that allotted 25,000 slots over five years. According to an article in The Ledger Iraqis who worked for the government are in fear of their lives as the clock ticks down.
BAGHDAD — Terrorism fears in the United States are all but halting visas for Iraqis, even those who risked their lives aiding the American war effort, making them especially vulnerable ahead of the planned American military withdrawal…
Congress required the Pentagon and the Departments of State and Homeland Security to draft a plan to expedite visas for the most pressing cases, should insurgents threaten those left behind after the military leaves, and set a deadline of May that was not met.
Meanwhile, neither the Bush nor the Obama administration has met the targets set by Congress several years for issuing special immigrant visas.
The numbers are stark: beginning in 2008, Congress expanded the special immigrant visa program to allot 25,000 slots over five years. After nearly four years, the government has issued about 7,000.
Mr. Johnson said the impetus for the legislation was to avoid a huge refugee crisis like the one after the pullout from Vietnam. In 2006, after British forces pulled out of Basra, the southern Iraqi port city, interpreters were rounded up and killed.
In an interview in Baghdad in May, Eric P. Schwartz, assistant secretary of state for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said the administration would take care of the Iraqis who had assisted the American forces. “We feel that we are prepared to deal with any variety of contingencies,” he said… Read more here
In the meantime Mr. Schwartz has announced his resignation, and will be riding the revolving door back into the private sphere.
Note: The article incorrectly states that the new security clearances are the result of two Iraqi refugees in Kentucky whom authorities alleged recently, were conducting terrorism planning. In fact, the federal government instigated the enhanced security checks last October.
Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), Iraqi, Obama administration, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants, State Department | Tagged: Iraq, red tape, refugee, resettlement, security check, security clearance, SIV, Special Immigrant Visa | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 16, 2011
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$928.5 billion in defense spending
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$898 billion in health care expenditures
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$787.6 billion in pensions
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$464.6 billion in welfare spending
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$250.7 billion on interest payments
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$151.4 billion in other spending including basic research
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$140.9 billion for education
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$104.2 billion for transportation
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$57.3 billion in protective services such as police, fire, law courts
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$29 billion in general government expenses
The final horse trading between the US House and US Senate for the FY 2011 continuing resolution (CR) is done and results in a 10% reduction to refugee assistance programs. The pie chart above (at Motorgasm) shows the FY 2011 US budget final continuing resolution (CR) — HR 1473. The refugee assistance program represents just a tiny piece out of a tiny slice of the budget pie dominated by discretionary security spending (Pentagon and others) and non-discretionary entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc), yet cuts to foreign assistance programs is now politically popular, even though foreign assistance represents less than 1% of the budget. An article in the UK’s Guardian media source has a succinct blurb:
…Joseph Nye Jr, Harvard professor and former assistant secretary of defence, said cuts to the state department and the US foreign aid budget would fail to make any real contribution to deficit reduction, but would do serious damage to America’s global influence.
“Polls consistently show a popular misconception that aid is a significant part of the US federal budget, when in fact it amounts to less than 1%,” he said. “Thus, congressional cuts to aid in the name of deficit reduction are an easy vote, but a cheap shot.”… Read more here
International affairs spending will be $48.3, a half billion reduction from FY 2010 spending levels, although $8.4 billion less than what President Obama proposed 13 months ago, and $3.3 billion more than the version that the Republican-led US House of Representatives passed in February, HR 1.
An Inter Press Service article breaks these figures down:
WASHINGTON, Apr 14, 2011 (IPS) – While the State Department’s overall 2011 international affairs budget was cut sharply from President Barack Obama’s initial request, humanitarian and development groups are expressing some relief at the final result given the current political climate.
The 2011 continuing resolution (CR) that emerged last Friday after weeks of difficult negotiations, and which is expected to be formally approved by both houses Thursday, provides a total of 48.3 billion dollars for international affairs funding this fiscal year, which ends Sep. 30.
While that was 8.4 billion dollars less than the 56-billion-dollar request Obama submitted 13 months ago, it marked a cut of only about half a billion dollars from baseline 2010 spending levels. And it was 3.3 billion dollars more than the version that was approved in February by the Republican-led House of
Representatives, HR 1.
“The worst of the harsh and damaging cuts to international affairs accounts proposed in HR 1 were avoided,” said Samuel Worthington, president of InterAction, a coalition of some 180 humanitarian and development non-governmental organization (NGOs).
“At the same time, we are mindful of the fact that American interests and values call on us to do better,” he added. “Political turmoil and U.S. economic and strategic interests underscore that America needs to be more engaged in international affairs, not less.”
It appeared that lawmakers who forged the final deal split the difference between HR 1 and the Senate version of the CR, which was considerably more generous, albeit less so than Obama’s original request…
…bilateral migration and refugee assistance was cut by nearly 10 percent, to 1.7 billion dollars, compared to 2010, although that total was some 600 million dollars more than the total approved by the Republican-led House.
Similarly, the 1.7 billion dollars for international food aid programs represents an 11 percent cut from Obama’s request and a 17 percent reduction from 2010…
…The United Nations and other international organizations will also face significant cuts – a total of 377 million dollars, or 23 percent, less than last year’s contributions of 1.7 billion dollars and 304 billion dollars less than what Obama had requested. How these cuts will be allocated agency by agency has yet to be determined, according to Congressional staffers…
…The International Development Association, the World Bank affiliate that provides low-interest loans and grants to the world’s poorest nations, and the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development, on the one hand, suffered only nominal cuts…
…Aid specialists here also objected to the CR’s cuts in operating expenses of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) of three percent compared to 2010 and reduction of nine percent from Obama’s request, noting the agency is implementing reforms to promote transparency and accountability under its new administrator, Rajiv Shah, that have long been sought by Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike.
“The NGO community has been calling for these reforms for years, and now they’re really moving forward on them,” said Interaction’s Todd Shelton. “It’s really important that the agency be given the capacity it needs to make them sustainable and lasting.”… Read more here
Do I need to point out the irony of NGO’s, including refugee resettlement agencies, spearheading demands for more government transparency? These groups run in secrecy, with closed books, managing even less transparency (accountability to the public) than our government agencies. They are private entities conducting public activities, to a great extent using public funds.
Posted in Congress, funding, Migration & Refugee Assistance Account (MRA), NGO's (Non-governmental organizations), Obama administration, openess and transparency in government, State Department, UN (United Nations) | Tagged: bilateral migration, continuing resolution, CR, Democrats, FISCAL YEAR 2011, food aid programs, FY 2011, House of Representatives, HR 1, human rights, International Development Association, NGO's, Obama, refugee, refugee assistance, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, Republicans, senate, U.S. Agency for International Development, UN, United Nations, USAID, World Bank | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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