Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 18, 2012
***UPDATE*** – April 24, 2012 — Dovetree Apartments alleges that only one apartment was affected by bed bug infestation
Bed bugs have infested at least 24 apartment units in an apartment building housing refugees in San Antonio. The resurgence of bedbugs is a problem throughout the United States (Note: like mosquitoes they take a blood meal from humans, however, unlike mosquitoes they transmit no diseases). Bedding donated to Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Antonio seems to be the culprit in this case. An article at KSAT has the story:
Refugees from all over the world came to San Antonio to escape war, poverty and persecution in their home countries, yet Pamela Espurvoa, a refugee advocate, said they arrived here only to encounter a bed bug infestation at the Dove Tree Apartments in the 4500 block of Gardendale.
Yet now, Pamela Raines, director of development for Catholic Charities, the agency responsible for their resettlement, said Dove Tree will begin treatment on Friday once the affected apartments are identified.
“Catholic Charities will certainly cover it,” Raines said, referring to the cost of the extermination…
…Espurvoa said tenants of all ages were being bitten by the bugs. She said an exterminator told her the bed bugs were in the mattresses, walls, air ducts and clothing.
“He couldn’t believe the magnitude of this, and this is only one unit,” Espurvoa said.
Espurvoa said she believes at least two dozen units are infested…
…Reason being, the apartment manager said, was that the infestation occurred after the refugees moved in.
Both she and Espurvoa said the likely source was the bedding that was donated, since the families arrived with next to nothing… Read more here
An article at the San Antonio Express-News indicates that several buildings are affected. Also, a Myanmar refugee said she had not reported the problem to apartment management despite a month-long infestation.
…Exterminators have been called to combat a bedbug problem at a Northwest Side apartment complex reserved for refugees seeking asylum.
The outbreak was reported Tuesday at the Dove Tree apartments in the 4500 block of Gardendale. Dove Tree is one of several San Antonio complexes where refugees settle after arriving through the United States Refugee Resettlement Program.
Catholic Charities is helping provide exterminators to spray affected units Friday, according to a source. The organization had no comment Tuesday night.
The pest problem has been reported to affect several buildings.
Nye Reh, from Myanmar, lives with his wife and five other relatives in a two-bedroom unit where a spray of insect droppings covers the corner of a mattress.
Reh said through a relative interpreting for him that he itches throughout the day.
Damanti Biswa said she sleeps near her front door to get away from the bugs. Tika Biswa interpreted for her, saying she’s had the problem for the past month and hadn’t reported the bugs to apartment management yet…
…The resurgence of bedbugs has been a problem throughout the United States, not only in apartments but also in the nicest hotels, said Roseann Vivanco, clinical instructor at the University of Texas Health Science Center…
“Bedbugs don’t mean a person is dirty; they don’t discriminate between the rich or poor,” Vivanco said. “There does need to be some education, continuous cleaning, and they’ll need assistance with that. I’m glad to see that Catholic Charities has stepped up to the plate to help out.” Read more here
Posted in bed bugs, Burma/Myanmar, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio Inc., Nepali Bhutanese, San Antonio, volunteers | Tagged: bed bugs, bhutanese, Burma, catholic charities, infestation, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, San Antonio | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 11, 2012
Catholic Family Service in Amarillo has decided to reduce new refugee resettlement numbers by half due to concerns of overload from the local school district, according to an article in the Amarillo Globe-News. Resettlement will now be limited to “family reunification cases” – refugees who are resettling to be reunified with local family members. (The article also gives various confusing numbers for the amount of money the State Department gives for initial resettlement needs (intended as seed money). As of last year the amount was $1800 per refugee, with $700 available for resettlement agency overhead, $900 minimum to each refugee, and $200 that resettlement agencies may redirect to the neediest refugees at the agency. The $1800 was supposedly increased this year, but no numbers yet available.)
Catholic Family Service has lowered the number of new refugees it helps settle in Amarillo to help school officials better handle unique needs posed by refugee children and help the organization meet budget cuts.
Roughly 800 to 900 of the 1,100 refugee students enrolled in Amarillo schools had little to no formal schooling when they arrived in the U.S., and that has created a major learning block, said Kevin Phillips, executive director of student performance for the Palo Duro High School cluster…
…Catholic Family Service, a nonprofit organization, is one of two groups that receives federal funds to help newly arrived refugees settle in Amarillo. Executive Director Nancy Koons said the organization has decided to take in no more than 200 arrivals per year, down from 400 in previous years. Koons said the arrivals will be limited to “family reunification cases.”…
…Koons said [Amarillo Independent School District] principals and school nurses have expressed concerns about the challenges posed by refugee children.
“It seems like we were creating needs by bringing in too many refugees,” she said… Read more here
Posted in Amarillo, Catholic, Catholic Family Service, Amarillo, children, funding, R&P, schools, Somali Bantu | Tagged: Amarillo, Catholic Family Service, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 4, 2012
A flashy car, sex, guns and a shooting take center stage in a newspaper article about a Galveston shelter that houses unaccompanied youth – The Children’s Center, Inc. Unfortunately the article seems to raise more questions than it answers. The reporter claims that the federal government “imported” unaccompanied alien minors into Galveston and then “dumped” them on an underfunded local social-services network, while complaining about a program (the federal HHS Transitional Living Program?) specifically intended to get youth on their feet and independent so that they won’t be dumped on the community. An allegation is also made that the shelter terminated a supposed whistle-blower employee after she contacted the organization’s board of directors.
Innuendo is also made about how one 18-year-old youth would have had the “money” to use a cell phone and be “driving a car” when its tires were shot out by an angry father who tried to entice the youth into coming to a park to have sexual relations with the man’s daughter. It seems as if no one realizes that youth tend to borrow cell phones, and even cars, from each other. I also wonder why the reporter didn’t just take the license plate number from the police report of the incident and check on the car’s ownership, and not speculating about the youth owning the vehicle. He also implies that the youth being robbed at gunpoint somehow brings into question why he was robbed, while not referring to any items that were actually stolen. Again, the police report would probably have indicated that.
Finally the reporter tries to create sensation around an incident in which he implies that the 18-year-old had consensual sexual relations at the shelter with a younger teenager. Although this kind of consensual sex is an age-old phenomena, in this case it would no doubt have been illegal. It’s not clear, however, that the shelter did anything improper surrounding the incident in which police were called. What any of that has to do with our society’s humanitarian attempt to care for and help unaccompanied alien minors and youth is not made clear in the Galveston Daily News article:
GALVESTON — If the first 25 days of January are any indication, illicit sex and gunfire are common themes in the young life of a Honduran immigrant who came to Galveston under the auspices of an obscure federal program.
The man, 18, was shot at on two occasions and hit once during that time. He was accused once and suspected once again of having sex with underaged girls — one 15 and one 12. The suspicion arose at an island homeless shelter; the accusation sparked gunfire at an island park.
His hosts at the Children’s Center Inc. called the man “George” in interviews. And although he is named in several police incident reports, he has not been charged with a crime. And so he’s called “George” in this article, too, in keeping with the newspaper’s policy of not naming people who have not been charged with crimes.
As far as the public record and the police are concerned, George has been a victim of crime more often than a suspect. All the same, the situations he encountered, whether through bad luck or bad action, raise many questions about how he and other young men like him came to be here, why they remain here, who’s paying for their stay and who’s responsible for monitoring their behavior.
Events during those 25 days in January also raise questions about oversight in a federal program that imports illegal immigrants into communities like Galveston, serves them for a time, and then, apparently, just dumps them onto an underfunded local social-services network… Read more here
Posted in Galveston, housing, ORR, teenagers | Tagged: alien youth, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, Transitional Living Program, whistleblower | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 23, 2012
A Baptist organization is hoping to lead Nepali-Bhutanese refugees in Dallas away from their Hindu cultural roots. Segue Refugee Partners Ministries will help out the refugees as a prelude to their agenda.
Will they be honest and upfront with the refugees and tell them what the plan is?
…Matthew Johnston and Elizabeth Hall lead Segue Refugee Partners Ministries, the nonprofit organization… They have been connecting with Bhutanese refugees for more than a year…Segue’s vision is to build partnerships and relationships between these Bhutanese refugees and American Christians who are willing to relate and help out in whatever way they can. The refugees have a variety of needs, from help them deal with insurance-related issues regarding health care to finding jobs in the city. The hope is also to lead the refugees from a Hindu background into a relationship with Jesus Christ… Read more here
Posted in Baptist, converting refugees, Dallas/Fort Worth, faith-based, Hindu, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: bhutanese, dallas, nepalese, Nepali, refugees, religious conversion, resettlement, Segue Refugee Partners Ministries | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 7, 2012
The CEO/president of Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston is resigning. This follows the fallout from their attempted cover-up of the sexual assault of a refugee boy in one of group’s shelters, and then their lack of answers to key questions about the cover-up. An article in the Houston Chronicle covers the resignation:
The CEO/president of Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston has announced plans to resign after more than six years at the helm of the nonprofit organization. The organization confirmed the departure of Bonna Kol in a statement, but did not respond to questions about whether her resignation was connected to the fallout from a sexual abuse scandal at St. Michael’s Home for Children…
…The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement issued a scathing report that found the organization’s senior management “deliberately misled” federal officials about a July 1 sexual assault involving children at one of the shelters run through its St. Michael’s Home for Children.
The resettlement office accused senior managers of doctoring incident reports and failing to immediately seek medical treatment for the boy, who allegedly was anally penetrated, records show…
…Two Catholic Charities executives resigned and two other managers were fired in connection with the incident… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, children, faith-based, Houston, ORR, safety | Tagged: Bonna Kol, Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston, CEO, children, investigation, ORR, refugees, resettlement, resignation, sexual assault, shelter | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 4, 2012
The Office of Refugee Resettlement is alerting people to a new scam that targets refugees:
The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has been alerted to a new telephone scam apparently targeting Bhutanese refugees. A man identifying himself as a representative of the “Federal Grants Department” calls from a Washington, DC-based telephone number, (202) 436-9601, informing recently resettled refugees that they are eligible to receive $10,000 because they are refugees from Bhutan. To claim the money, they are instructed to produce a money order for $650, and call the telephone number for further instructions on where to send the money…
…At least one refugee has been coerced into making multiple payments as “processing fees”, totaling more than $5,000.
So far, reports are localized in Texas, but ORR advises everyone to be aware of this scam and avoid giving any personal information or payments to unknown callers… Read more here
Another type of scam, this one in Australia, involves people on the phone posing as utility salespeople, and telling refugees that they need to verify details of their accounts. See Brimbank Weekly article:
REFUGEES and migrants with little or poor English are being targeted by door-to-door utilities salespeople, leading to large debts and disconnection of services for some.
Footscray Community Legal Centre financial counsellor Anita Smith said unscrupulous practices by door-knockers were still continuing, despite a campaign to stamp out the practice that involved distributing “do not knock” stickers to residents…
…”One of the tactics the salespeople use is to say that people need to verify their details and then get them to answer questions on the phone. The people then find that their accounts have been changed.”
Others seek help after a visit from a salesperson posing as a government representative, who makes the resident feel compelled to switch.
Many Burmese Chin people in the west are having problems with salespeople… Read more here
Posted in Chin, Nepali Bhutanese, ORR, scams, Texas | Tagged: bhutanese, Nepali, refugees, resettlement, scams, telephone scam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 31, 2011
A Chevrolet passenger van carrying 15 Somali refugees from Amarillo in the Texas panhandle to their jobs at Cargill in Plainview rolled over today, killing three people. There are seven others in critical condition. The van, supposedly owned by one of the workers, struck debris on the road, swerved, overcorrected and rolled as many as five times. According to authorities neither those killed nor those critically hurt were wearing seat belts. An article in the Plainview Daily Herald reports on this tragic incident, the fourth van rollover this year in which refugees died or endured serious injuries:
Twelve of the 15 people in a van headed from Amarillo to Plainview to work at Cargill on Friday afternoon were ejected in a one-vehicle rollover two miles south of Canyon on Interstate 27.
Three of them died.
Department of Public Safety officials said Amar Ashur, Omar Abdi Qadir and Abdirizak Addulle Mohamed, 24, all of Amarillo, were killed in the accident that occurred when the Chevrolet van in which they were riding hit debris on the road, swerved, overcorrected and rolled as many as five times. The van, driven by 28-year-old Ibrahim M. Iden of Amarillo, came to rest on its roof…
…Neither those killed nor those critically hurt were wearing seat belts, authorities said…
…The van was carrying 15 Somali workers from their homes in and around Amarillo to work the second shift at Cargill…
…Catholic Family Service estimated about 1,000 Somalis lived in Amarillo in 2008 and expected about 400 refugees to come to the city this year, many of them fleeing military conflict.
The van apparently belonged to one of the occupants… Read more here
There was another van rollover on November 19 near Rushmore, Minnesota. Earlier this year there were van rollover accidents involving refugees in central Georgia (and here) and northern Georgia. A passenger van rollover in 2009 in Arizona killed six.
These vans are not safe when used for the intended purpose of carrying 15 passengers, due to instability caused by the raised center of gravity. Even 12-passenger vans are suspect.
***UPDATE*** January 3, 2012 — 3 still in critical condition, passanger van was a 2003 Chevrolet Express.
Posted in Amarillo, Catholic Family Service, Amarillo, meatpacking industry, passenger van roll-over, Somali | Tagged: Amarillo, Cargill, Catholic Family Service, Chevrolet Express, ejected, passenger van, refugees, resettlement, somalis, van rollover | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 29, 2011
According to the Global Frontiers Missions website, they are a Christian missionary group targeting those whom they call “THUMB people” – so-called “Tribal” people, Hindus, nonreligious people (the so-called ”Unreligious”), Muslims, and Buddhists (apparently they see little value in other people’s cultures, although I suspect they enjoy foreign foods). The organization seeks to “multiply”, that is, to evangelize and “discipline” refugees and immigrants to the point that they can “go back” and “spread” — among their own people – the group’s brand of faith. The organization recently branched out to target refugees, immigrants and international students in Houston and Clarkston, GA, but also operates in Jacksonville, Los Angeles, New York City, and the Twin Cities. They find that young people’s minds are apparently more pliable for religious conversion, and that they can use children to get at the parents. OneNewsNow has the story:
A missionary organization is focusing on spreading the gospel in two communities in the United States that are very diverse.
Houston, Texas has drawn immigrants from many countries, and according to Grant Haynes of Global Frontiers Missions(GFM), Clarkston, Georgia has done likewise…
…“We help teach English. We help run an Internet café where people can learn typing skills and take the job skills that they have in their countries to come up with a resume that helps make sense in this country and [helps] them with job placement,” Haynes details. “We help their kids with after-school programs.”
He adds that GFM has found that the younger set especially is becoming bilingual, and many are open to the gospel… Read more here
and
Nathan Harper has moved to the Atlanta area to join Global Frontier Missions in ministering to a large concentration of immigrants and refugees…
…The ministry will also be reaching out to children, which Harper says is a good avenue to reach the parents. Global Frontier Missions has a similar project in Houston and is hoping to utilize the same approach to present the gospel to immigrants elsewhere in the United States… Read more here
Posted in Atlanta, Buddhist, children, Christian, churches, converting refugees, faith-based, Hindu, Houston, Islamic | Tagged: Clarkston, cultural imperialism, Global Frontiers Missions, missionaries, Nathan Harper, neocolonial, refugees, religious conversion, resettlement, Sugar Land | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 20, 2011
A roundtable panel discussion In Austin addresses the issue of older refugees. Panelists included Zarni Tun (resettlement case manager with Refugee Services of Texas); Lorel Donaghey (employment specialist with Caritas of Austin); Casey Kasper (ESL teacher with Interfaith Action of Texas) and Rebecca Tulis (extended case manager with Refugee Services of Texas). The discussion is described at Austin Refugee Roundtable:
…Some of the problems faced by older refugees –identified as refugees over the age of 50- included:
- General fear of being a burden on family members.
- It is more difficult for them to learn English which makes it more difficult to pass the US citizenship test. This makes them not eligible to receive SSI/SSDI beyond 7 years.
- Employment difficulty since many jobs that would be a good fit (caring for others, childcare, sewing) require individuals to be fluent in English or able to work fast on big machines… Read more here
Posted in alienation-isolation, Austin, Caritas of Austin, elderly refugees, employment/jobs for refugees, ESL & ELL, language, mental health, Refugee Services of Texas, Refugee Services of Texas | Tagged: Austin, Caritas of Austin, elderly, ESL, Interfaith Action of Texas, panel discussion, Refugee Services of Texas, refugees, resettlement, Roundtable | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 3, 2011
The case involving repeated sexual assaults of an 8-year-old refugee boy at a Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston shelter – and the agency’s subsequent cover-up of the case – continues to unfold. The agency won’t answer further questions on the cover-up, including whether the 8-year-old was separated from the two older boys after the assault, how many other children reported witnessing the abuse, what kind of treatment was provided for them and when. Its also seems that government oversight agencies have only been able to slowly dredge out details of the case from Catholic Charities, and that the faith-based agency continues to withhold many key details. It’s also now clear that a Texas state oversight agency did not have a mere “technical glitch” causing closure of the case without investigation, but had a series of failures – putting children at great ongoing risk. Another article in the Houston Chronicle reveals more details of the case.
…In the hours and days after a staff member interrupted the July 1 assault in the upstairs room, the senior management of the Catholic Charities’ program failed to get the boy medical treatment, doctored incident reports and tried to minimize what had occurred in order to “protect the program,” according to a federal report.
But it was not just the boy’s caretakers who stumbled, state and local law enforcement records show. A worker for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services intake system for reports of potential abuse and neglect also made a mistake, accidentally delaying an outside investigation into what happened for nearly two weeks.
After the federal government brought that error to the state’s attention, the case was referred to the wrong agency, leaving it in limbo until it landed with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office in August.
In the end, children’s advocates say there is blame to go around, calling for accountability for the shelter program management, who are now part of a criminal investigation. They also called for a review of the state’s intake system to ensure that technical problems with law enforcement notification are quickly fixed.
“Certainly some fault has to go to St. Michael’s for what happened, but if … this reporting went awry and was misdirected in some sort of way, just imagine the hurt that might have been caused to a number of these kids by something not happening soon enough,” said Bob Sanborn, president and CEO of the Houston-based nonprofit Children at Risk.
“When it comes to kids, we need to take immediate action.”…
…The shelter management did not call the sheriff’s office, but they did call the Department of Family and Protective Services (DFPS) Statewide Intake Division roughly six hours after the incident, at 6:34 p.m……any report to that state hotline reporting potential abuse or neglect should have triggered a chain of events, including notification of the licensing division for DFPS and a fax or email notification to local law enforcement, said Patrick Crimmins, a DFPS spokesman.
But the worker at the state intake center was confused and couldn’t immediately find a state license for St. Michael’s, Crimmins said. The intake report was “mistakenly closed” without notifying the licensing division or law enforcement about any incident at St. Michael’s, he said…
…On July 13, ORR called the state to check on the status of its investigation, but state licensing officials still had no idea what happened at the shelter.
They re-opened the initial July 1 report and sent out a state monitor to investigate within 72 hours. But the automatic notification system again failed, this time referring the report to the wrong agency, the Houston Police Department. The shelter sits near the city-county line but is within the jurisdiction of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office…
…By mid-August, ORR was suspicious enough about what happened at the shelter that day to send a team of monitors to Houston. They issued a scathing report that documented a reporting delay, failure to seek medical care and the doctoring of incident reports, notifying Catholic Charities on Sept. 8 that they would remove all children from their care, at least temporarily…
…Catholic Charities still refuses to answer several key questions about the incident, including whether the 8-year-old was separated from the two older boys after the assault, how many other children reported witnessing the abuse and what kind of treatment was provided for them and when… Read more here
Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston is the agency which was the subject of complaints from gay Iraqi refugees in 2010, and allegations that one of its workers sexually assaulted an 11-year-old refugee boy in 2007.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, child protective services, faith-based, Houston, ORR, police, sexual abuse | Tagged: catholic charities, Department of Family and Protective Services, DFPS, houston, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, police, protective services, refugees, resettlement, sexual abuse, sexual assault, St. Michael's | Leave a Comment »
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