After passing the New Hampshire state house one-year refugee moratorium bill, spearheaded by Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, went before a state senate hearing this week. A lawyer with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human services, which oversees refugee resettlement, testified that the bill directs the department to do a number of things that it has no authority or ability to do. A report at New Hampshire Public Radio has this:

A bill that would allow communities to ask for a one-year moratorium on refugee resettlement has made it to a Senate Committee, but critics of the bill are piling up.

This moratorium bill has traveled a winding road to get to the senate.

The house committee that first heard recommended – almost unanimously – to kill it.

The full house then voted nearly two to one to pass it.

Now that it’s being heard by the senate, it’s drawing fresh opposition…

…several leaders from the refugee community…spoke out against the moratorium bill.

Several others at the hearing – including UNH law professor Buzz Scherr – argued that the bill runs afoul of the constitution in a basic way: it tells people where they can, or can’t, live.

Scherr: and that’s what this legislation does, it isolates a particular group of legal residents, political and economic refugees, new to this country, and says for this one year period you can’t come here.

Other opponents testified the bill as drafted would be impossible to implement.

Jennifer Jones is a lawyer with the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human services, which oversees refugee resettlement.

Jones: it directs the department of health and human services to do a number of things that we have no authority or ability to do… Read more here

Mayor Gatsas testified that the local refugee resettlement agency doesn’t tell his office each time a refugee arrives. The International Institute of New England, however, pointed out that they tell the schools and health department. (I wonder if this means the Institute does not tell the mayor about the total number of refugees resettled each year? I would find that difficult to understand. The group’s national resettlement affiliate, the USCRI, presents a plan each year to the State Department for how many refugees are resettled in each city.) An article at Manchester’s Union Leader newspaper gives both side’s positions – those of the mayor and of William J. Gillett, chairman of the Institute’s board of directors:

…Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas has long urged a moratorium on the resettlement program, saying the city and the refugees need an opportunity to catch their breath so that refugees can be successful.

He blamed much of the problems on the resettlement agencies, which provide support for up to nine months, but leave most refugees unprepared to obtain jobs and become productive, he said.

Gatsas has met with state and federal resettlement officials, as well as the agencies, but believes most of his efforts to slow down the process have “fallen on deaf ears.”…

…“As mayor, I never know when someone is coming to the city of Manchester,” he said.

But William J. Gillett, chairman of the board of directors for the International Institute of New England, the resettlement agency for Manchester, said…There has been a considerable slowing of the number of refugees resettled in Manchester…“The system works, but it’s not perfect,’ he said…

…Committee member Sen. Nancy Stiles, R-Hampton, asked how much notice the city is given when refugees are sent to Manchester, and Gillett said the health department and school district are notified.

“We don’t receive much notice ourselves,” he said, and acknowledged the mayor’s office is not notified as refugees arrive all year long.

Barnes said if the agency and the mayor could get together maybe “some good could come of this.”

Gillett said he has made efforts. Earlier Gatsas said he would continue to reach out to the agency.

Lutheran Social Services also resettles refugees in New Hampshire. Refugees are re-settled in 14 communities throughout the state. University of New Hampshire School of Law professor Albert “Buzz” Scheer told the Senate committee, as he did the House committee, that the bill as proposed is unconstitutional, because it would segregate one class of residents, prevent residents moving from one state to another and cannot supersede federal law that governors the program… Read more here

Although the resettlement agency seems to have made many mistakes, which they have not fully acknowledged, Mayor Gatsas has long shown that he has no intention of compromising. Nevertheless, a state senator wants both sides to just “sit down together”, to work all this out. Either the senator is naive or he wants the public to see that the senate gave each side one last try at reaching compromise. An article at the Concord Monitor newspaper explains:

The chairman of a Senate committee yesterday implored Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas and a refugee settlement agency to resolve their differences and eliminate the need for a proposed moratorium on new refugees that has already passed the House.

“It seems there has been lack of communication, and that seems to be a burr under some people’s saddle,” said Sen. Jack Barnes, a Raymond Republican. “I’d like to get the burr out from underneath the saddle.”

Barnes said to Gatsas, “Will you please try to reach out one more time to these groups?”

Gatsas said he would…

The Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee did not vote on the refugee moratorium bill, which passed the House in March, 190-109. Barnes said he wanted to wait a week to see whether Gatsas and the International Institute of New Hampshire could resolve their differences without legislation… Read more here