Friends of Refugees

A U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program Watchdog Group

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Holding friend’s child, Sudanese refugee shot to death in Rochester NY street

Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2012

A South Sudanese refugee who arrived in Rochester, NY at age 14 as an unaccompanied minor was murdered on Tuesday. Paul Chol Awuol was holding a friend’s son when a man just came up and shot him in the chest, according to the friend, Jessica Lane. He was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused on helping others, when he went to Smith Street Tuesday to watch Lane’s child. In 2010 Sudanese refugees in Rochester reported finding a bullet hole in their apartment ceiling after three men were shot to death in the apartment above. A report at CBS Channel 8 gives details:

As Rochester police search for a suspect in Tuesday’s Smith Street homicide, friends of Paul Chol Awuol say the Sudanese refugee was shot in the chest while watching a close friend’s son.

Jerry DeLuccio wants people to remember Awuol as more than a crime statistic. “This was a young man that has made such a difference,” he said…

…Awuol was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused more and more on helping others.  That’s what led him to Smith Street Tuesday, to watch a friend’s child.  “He was holding my son in his hand when this man came and just shot him in the chest,” said friend Jessica Lane through tears.

A small memorial has begun where the Sudanese refugee fell, the painful irony all too clear.  The man who came to America as a boy to escape violence was ultimately killed by a gunman.  “That’s what hurts me so much, is that he was ready to explode, in terms of how he would help others and we’re never going to have that chance,” said DeLuccio… Read more here

Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, men, Rochester, safety, South Sudanese, teenagers | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Fire sweeps through apartments housing Myanmar refugees in Albany, NY

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 17, 2012

At least five houses were damaged in a fire that sweep through an historic neighborhood in downtown near the capitol in Albany on Sunday. The building where the fire started was occupied by three Myanmar refugee families resettled by Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Albany. An article at the Albany Times-Union explains:

ALBANY — First, neighbors heard screams. Then they saw the flames.

A wall of fire washed over half a block of Park Avenue in the Mansion neighborhood Sunday evening, drawing every firetruck in the capital city to try to contain a blaze that was roaring in three houses when crews arrived around 8 p.m.

At least five houses erected in the years after the Civil War were damaged, officials said late Sunday. And although half a city block was evacuated as smoke and steam spoiled the mild spring air, no firefighters or residents were injured, according to Mayor Jerry Jennings and Fire Chief Robert Forezzi.

It was too early, the men said, to know how many people were displaced…

…Michele O’Sullivan, 45, was sitting in her apartment at 56 Park Ave. when “we heard screams, then we heard fire, then we looked up and in seconds we saw the flames.” She and several other neighbors said the blaze started at 60 Park Ave., in the back of the top floor. Forezzi and Jennings said an investigation was ongoing and that any word on a cause was premature. That building is occupied by three families who are refugees from the southeast Asian nation of Burma, according to a volunteer for Catholic Charities who assists them. The volunteer declined to be named. Some recently arrived in the city, but others have been here at least two years, the volunteer said… Read more here

Posted in Albany, apartment house fires, Burma/Myanmar | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Nickel City Smiler Movie will be screening at San Francisco State University

Posted by Christopher Coen on April 10, 2012

Nickel City Smiler Movie – Karen People of Burma Refugee Documentary Film

Nickel City Smiler will be screening at San Francisco State University on Thursday April 19th at 4:30pm in Burk Hall, room 408. For those of you in the area, come out and support Prof. Lee, the Burmese Youth Association, and the Burma Family Network.

Posted in Buffalo, Karen, San Francisco | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

FBI ‘community outreach’ to foster trust and generate goodwill?

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 29, 2012

Documents uncovered by The Associated Press revealed that the New York Police Department conducted an extensive surveillance campaign of the Muslim population in the northeast. Now it turns out that the FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program announced as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California. The claimed intention of the FBI outreach programs was to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they could work together to fight crime and avert terrorism. We learn now, however, that the FBI was operating the community outreach in Northern California as part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program, and conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing. The legacy of this deception will, no doubt, be to undermine trust for genuine outreach programs. An article at Msnbc.com has the story:

The FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program billed as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California and then shared the intelligence with other government agencies, according to FBI documents obtained by civil rights groups.

The heavily redacted documents, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, raise “grave constitutional concerns,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“In San Francisco, we have found that community outreach was being run out of the FBI’s intelligence division and was part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program,” conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing,” said Shamsi. “The bureau’s documentation of religious leaders’ and congregants’ beliefs and practices violates the Privacy Act, which Congress passed to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.”…

…The documents indicate that FBI was keeping records of conversations and activities within mosques and other Muslim organizations from 2004 through 2008, information that was provided by employees engaged in the outreach programs.

The announced intention of the FBI outreach programs is to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they can work together to fight crime and avert terrorism…

…documents still under analysis by the ACLU indicate FBI San Francisco continued to mingle outreach and intelligence gathering through 2011, according to Shimsa.

The documents undermine trust for genuine outreach programs, said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that makes policy recommendations to lawmakers and leaders.

“I think the recent documents further underscore how well-intentioned community leaders who talk with the FBI are instead the targets of this broad, intelligence-gathering effort,” she said. “It’s easy to see then how that community leader who had a conversation with an FBI agent finds himself being harassed when traveling or crossing borders.”

“These documents are illustrating the actual experiences of American Muslims that we have been hearing for a number of years now,” she added…

…Rules governing FBI surveillance were relaxed in 2008 to give more leeway to FBI “assessments” — a stage of surveillance that takes place before the opening of a formal investigation. These more lenient standards, critics say, allow information gathering on individuals without probable cause.

Rights groups are asking the Department of Justice to restore stricter rules on surveillance and to prohibit racial and religious profiling in all cases.

“What we need is for the FBI to go back to the standards set after the Hoover-era abuses.… guidelines put in place that required the FBI to engage in surveillance only if there’s evidence of wrongdoing,” said Khera of Muslim Advocates. Read more here

Posted in California, FBI, Islamic, NYC, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, security/terrorism | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

NYPD Apparently Targeting Buffalo-Area Citizens and Refugee Population Based On Ethnicity and Religion, Not Criminal Activity

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 18, 2012

It seems that the New York City Police Department (NYPD) has focused on Buffalo-area Muslims and Somalis (including people and citizens resettled as refugees), not based upon on known criminal activity, but instead based upon these people’s ethnicity and religion. Although the NYPD, unlike the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department need not predicate domestic surveillance on information that their target is engaged or about to engage in criminal activity, the NYPD did not fully consult with local police and other federal security agencies about its activities in Buffalo. There is no sign that the Strategic Intelligence Unit announced its activities to the Buffalo area’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cooperative effort that includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies. There is also the concern that actions by the NYPD could be jeopardizing the good relationship that local law enforcement authorities have with the local Somali and Muslim populations, including US citizens. An article at the Buffalo News explains:

The New York City Police Department’s focus on Buffalo-area Muslims continues to this day. Further, an internal document indicates the surveillance began even before NYPD detectives met with the Erie County undersheriff in December 2008 to describe their “Somalia Project.”…

…At the same time, there is no sign that the Strategic Intelligence Unit announced its activities to the Buffalo area’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, a cooperative effort that includes federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The Associated Press in recent months revealed the NYPD’s covert efforts to examine Muslim businesses, infiltrate mosques and keep an eye on Muslim students on college campuses, not just in New York City but in locations around the Northeast. The Muslim Student Association website at the University of Buffalo was among those monitored, a separate NYPD document shows.

The NYPD calls its surveillance and intelligence-gathering legal and necessary and does not apologize for the program. The department after 9/11 determined it “could not rely solely on the federal government” for its defense. Says Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly: “Our primary mission, our primary goal, is to keep this city safe.”

Yet ethnicity and religion, not criminal activity, seem to have sparked the NYPD’s interest around the Northeast, including Buffalo…

…Unlike the NYPD, the FBI and the U.S. Justice Department must predicate domestic surveillance on information that their target is engaged or about to engage in criminal activity.

“I can tell you that we don’t predicate any investigation based on somebody’s race, or color, or national origin, or on the exercise of their First Amendment rights,” said William J. Hochul, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of New York. “In terms of the bigger picture, why was the NYPD doing what it was? I don’t have all the details.”…

…If the NYPD did not provide a heads-up on its activities to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, it should have, said a former agent-in-charge here for the FBI.

“If I had still been up there that would have bothered me a lot,” said Peter J. Ahearn, who headed the FBI office in Buffalo from 2001 to 2006 and now works as a consultant helping businesses deal with government. “With the reputation the NYPD does have, and I know this factually, they will do different things in cities around the country and not even let law enforcement know they are there.

“There are reasons to be concerned,” he said. “If you are not talking to law enforcement, and the local police department rolls up on you, it creates an officer-safety issue. Also it can prove detrimental to the efforts that the local law enforcement community is making in the Muslim community. We had some very good community outreach up there.”

Dr. Khalid Qazi, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council of Western New York, agrees.

“This is all related to the security of the homeland, I don’t have any doubt about that,” he said of the NYPD’s foray into Buffalo. “The only question in my mind is, when we are working very cooperatively, and in a very proactive fashion for the security of the homeland, whether these types of actions are counterproductive.

“And I guess the issue always will be, where do we stop so we don’t compromise the civil rights and civil liberties of innocent Americans?”…

…Yahye Y. Omar, chairman of the Imams Council of Western New York, also is active on the West Side, especially as executive director of HEAL — Help Everyone Achieve Livelihood — a nonprofit that helps immigrants and refugees.

He is engaged in a long-standing effort to make the Islamic way of life less mysterious to outsiders, and to encourage Somali youth to consider how they can enrich their community.

In 2010, he helped establish a law enforcement education program for Somali high school and college students. It brought in representatives from the FBI, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, and the State Police to speak about the role of law enforcement, and careers. On a wall of his office, Omar has proudly placed a photo of a local Somali now with the Baltimore Police Department…

…Omar expressed [his] sentiments about the NYPD surveillance…why does the New York police force need contacts in the Somali and Muslim community here after its members have cooperated so much with local authorities?… Read more here

Posted in Buffalo, Dept of Homeland Security, Dept. of Justice, FBI, Islamic, NYC, security/terrorism, Somali | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Resettlement Agencies Sources Of Private Funding, Or Depending On Resettlement For Financial Income?

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 12, 2012

It’s still not clear to me that the refugee resettlement agencies, as the private sector partners in the US refugee resettlement program, are actually acting as a source of significant private funding for the program., as they so often tout. When I’ve tried to look at the figures I’ve found little information available, and what is available does not show significant private funds. An article in the Utica Observer-Dispatch discusses the changing economic needs of the local refugee resettlement agency — the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees:

UTICA — During the past 30 years, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees has resettled people from 31 countries.

At its height in 1997, the center welcomed more than 1,000 Bosnians. During the past five years, the center has resettled an average of 500 refugees per year, most of whom have been Karen/Burmese refugees.

As the center continues to welcome new refugees who often become citizens and grow their families here, the Utica area – known as the city that loves refugees – must look at this group and its impact in a new way while it morphs into one culture.

Here’s a look at how the center is contributing to that process:…

…The refugee center devised a plan that would keep it relevant as not only a resource for new arriving refugees but for a community that reflects a change in its cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversity.

Foreseeing that need, the board created objectives three years ago focusing on services that would promote cultural identity, increase access to interpreting and cultural awareness training, and provide opportunities for the community to become unified. That led to the creation of Compass Cultural Institute, an interpreting service program and cultural competence training service that’s been active in local hospitals, schools and workplaces.

“If we just depended on financial income coming only from resettling refugees [emphasis added] and continued to do that five or 10 years ago and not try to move in a different direction and provide other services to them, we would be in a different position,” refugee center board President Robert Dicks said… Read more here 

Should they “depend” on refugee resettlement for the organization’s financial income or should they be bringing significant private funding to the program? There should be enough transparency in the resettlement program so that we can look at these private funding figures. Secondly, refugees have always needed other services and support beyond the initial resettlement period, so shouldn’t these services have been built into every resettlement agency a long time ago? I know that organizations have to make sure the numbers work but the emphasis should always have been on refugees’ needs.

Posted in former Yugoslav republics, funding, Karen, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, Utica | Tagged: , , , , | 2 Comments »

Kickstarter Campaign For Nickel City Smiler Film

Posted by Christopher Coen on March 8, 2012

CEP Films, the small film group from Buffalo that made the Nickel City Smiler documentary film about refugee resettlement in that city just put out a press release. The group is trying to raise $100,000 in 60 days to fund a project to screen the film in places around the world where refugees are being resettled and in the refugee camps. The details are found at Kickstarter.com:

About this project

What is our Kickstarter campaign?

We are trying to give refugees a voice. Nickel City Smiler tells the story of refugees determined to make a better life for themselves and their children. Our goal is to screen the film in places around the world where refugees are being resettled and in the camps where refugees wait for the chance to start over in a new country. We hope that individuals throughout the world will gain a new understanding of the challenges refugees face everyday and help aid in their determination for a better life.  Nickel City Smiler can also educate refugees on what to expect once they arrive in America from the perspective of refugees currently living here… Read more here

Posted in Buffalo, Burma/Myanmar, Karen | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Refugee Resettlement Services: What Low Standards Produce

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 29, 2012

This is an extra scene from Nickel City Smiler, a documentary film about Karen refugees in Buffalo. Donna Pepero, head of the Refugee School Impact Program in the Buffalo Public Schools, talks about a resettlement agency in Buffalo that dropped off a refugee family to an apartment furnished with just part of a sectional sofa – not even any beds:

Posted in Buffalo, Burma/Myanmar, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, furnishings, lack of, International Institute of Buffalo, Jewish Family Service of Buffalo & Erie County, Journey's End Refugee Services, Journey's End Refugee Services, Karen | Tagged: , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Utica Uses Refugees To Boost Population Level

Posted by Christopher Coen on February 13, 2012

Its clear that political officials in various declining US regions have decided that our country’s humanitarian refugee resettlement program should be used in concert with these cities’ needs. A major Utica publication backs this assertion up with few questions asked. (I like the efficiency of killing two stones with one bird, but what about giving the refugees a say in the matter?)

Apparently the UNHCR has also used its own propaganda on refugees, via its Refugee publication, to make them think that Utica is some sort of paradise – christening it “The town that loves refugees” – even though the unemployment and poverty rates are high, and gangs vie for the loyalty of young refugees. A Utica refugee resettlement agency also sings it own praises as “a one-stop shop for services” (I’ve heard this issue from journalists in other cities who say that local resettlement agencies also put that issue front and center — seems diversionary. Why does it merit public discussion?)

On the other hand some Utica locals apparently believe dubious rumors that refugees take people’s jobs, are given free houses, and don’t pay taxes for seven years (that’s a new one). An editorial in The Utica Post-Standard shows the paper’s editorial board as apparently 100 percent behind the region’s use of refugees to increase the population:

Like many Rust Belt cities, Utica was declining in the 1980s and ’90s. A city that once numbered more than 100,000 citizens dropped perilously close to 50,000.

Then a remarkable thing happened: First a trickle, then a steady stream of refugees began arriving…They kept on coming, because they found a warm reception.

“We foster conditions that make for a welcoming environment,” says Peter Vogelaar, executive director of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center…

…Vogelaar explained why the city has been an ideal refugee haven. Utica’s infrastructure accommodates the new arrivals…Then there’s the resettlement center itself — “a one-stop shop for services,” Vogelaar says.

An article in the U.N. publication “Refugee” calls Utica “The town that loves refugees.” And the 14,000 refugees who came over the past 30 years returned the favor. They bought houses — many of them vacant — fixed them up and began paying property taxes. They planted community gardens and started successful businesses. The city’s ethnic restaurants are winning wide acclaim…

…Resettlement has not been problem-free. Housing prices are rising faster than some would like. Gangs vie for the loyalty of young refugees. New immigrants keep the poverty rate high, and schools struggle with students who still need to learn English.

Some still cling to stereotypes, Vogelaar added. “That darn foreigner takes my job, is given a house, doesn’t pay taxes for seven years — it’s all false rumors,” he said. “They get labeled ‘problem people.’ The reality is, they have faced untold problems, yet they are the resilient ones. They came through it all to make new lives.”… Read more here

Posted in employment/jobs for refugees, Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, population levels, using refugees as pawns to boost, safety, UN (United Nations), UNHCR, Utica | Tagged: , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

New York Gov. Cuomo Proposes New State Office To Help Refugees

Posted by Christopher Coen on January 9, 2012

Gov. Cuomo of New York has proposed a new state office to help refugees and immigrants with jobs, entrepreneurship, citizenship, and participation in civic and economic life. An article in Syracuse’s Post Standard explains:

In the fine print of his State of the State message last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that he would create an Office for New Americans to help immigrants on the path to citizenship and jobs.

Cuomo did not say much about the promise, but it is already welcome news to refugees and other immigrants who are trying to gain traction in Syracuse…

…Cuomo said last week that a new Office for New Americans would help the many legal, permanent residents eager to contribute to the economy and become part of the family of New York. The office would help highly-skilled people get licenses and low-skilled people get education and job training. The office would promote programs that encourage new Americans to participate in New York civic and economic life and would help people navigate the path to citizenship. It also would encourage entrepreneurship.

“We are not afraid of immigrants in New York – because we are immigrants, and children of immigrants, and we know how much they contribute to the state,” the governor said.

Cuomo spokesman Matt Wing said the office would not say more about the proposal. The governor is drawing up a proposed budget for the next fiscal year and is expected to unveil it Jan. 17. Read more here

Posted in economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, New York, professionals | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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