Archive for the ‘Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston’ Category
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 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 »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 28, 2011
It turns out that not only did Catholic Charities Galveston-Houston not report an incident involving the sexual assault of a refugee boy to the ORR until July 5 (four days after it occurred on July 1) — and did not mention the sexual assault part – but law enforcement was not notified until over a month later, on August 5. The Texas protective services, which claims that Catholic Charities notified it within 24 hours of the assault as required, claims to have closed its investigation due to a “technical glitch”, but reopened the case when Catholic Charities inquired about the investigation on July 13. The protective services investigation then found that the shelter left children unsupervised and children were acting out inappropriately. Records also showed a worker supervising children when that worker was actually off the clock. A report at Houston’s KPRC Channel-2 details what happened:
HOUSTON — An 8-year-old boy said he was repeatedly sexually assaulted by two boys at a home for children.
The boy said a 10-year-old and an 11-year-old boy assaulted him at the St. Michael’s Home for Children, which is run by Catholic Charities. The home cares for children who are refugees from foreign countries.
Harris County sheriff’s deputies said a worker at the home caught a 10-year-old molesting an 8-year-old in July. The 8-year-old later claimed he was also molested by an 11-year-old.
The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which licenses the home, launched an investigation and found children unsupervised and children acting out inappropriately. Records show a worker supervising children when that worker was actually off the clock.
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement also launched an investigation. It removed all but five children staying in the home. They were working on new living arrangements for those children.
Investigators said Catholic Charities immediately notified the state of the claims. The state closed its investigation after a technical glitch, but when Catholic Charities inquired about the investigation on July 13, the case was reopened.
Deputies said they were not notified of the alleged incidents until Aug. 5… Read more here
An updated version of the Houston Chronicle article from Monday adds further details.
Posted in Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, child protective services, children, faith-based, Houston, ORR, sexual abuse | Tagged: catholic charities, houston, law enforcement, protective services, refugees, resettlement, St. Michael's Home for Children, technical glitch, Texas Department of Family and Protective Services | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 27, 2011
An incident at a Catholic Charities shelter in Houston that media outlets previously reported as “sexual activity” between three children is now being reported as a sexual assault. An investigation by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) found that Catholic Charities did not report the July 1 sexual assault of a boy until four days later, nor did they seek medical treatment for the child. Catholic Charities management also did a cover-up, including doctoring of first reports. An article at UPI reports on the ORR investigation:
HOUSTON, Sept. 26 (UPI) — Federal officials were removing children and teens from three Houston shelters after learning the sexual assault of a child at one facility was covered up.
As of Friday, only five of 72 children and teens, mostly refugees, remained in the three Catholic Charities shelters, the Houston Chronicle reported.
An investigation by the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement found that Catholic Charities did not report the July 1 sexual assault of a young boy at a St. Michael’s shelter until July 5 and also failed to get the boy medical attention until the latter date.
“CCGH staff had knowledge that a [child] had been anally penetrated as the result of a sexual assault … and did not seek medical treatment,” a report by the office states. “Program staff should have observed that a sexual assault of a child is grounds for immediate medical attention.”
Federal investigators conducted an unannounced visit to the site of the sexual assault in August and found that initial reports of the attack had been doctored.
“The ORR monitors found significant concerns, including the fact that management had full knowledge of the extent of the assault and submitted erroneous … reports to this office, which deliberately misled ORR,” the agency’s director wrote in a Sept. 8 letter to the president of Catholic Charities… Read more here
An article in the Houston Chronicle reports that Catholic Charities management also pressured staffers to withhold details from investigators.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, child protective services, children, faith-based, health, Houston, medical care, ORR, sexual abuse | Tagged: catholic charities, chilren, cover-up, doctored documents, houston, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugees, sexual abuse, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2011
Catholic Charities of Houston, the agency which was the subject of complaints from gay Iraqi refugees in 2010, is now attempting to defend itself from allegations that a worker sexually assaulted an 11-year-old refugee boy in 2007. ABC 13 KTRK-TV tells us more:
HOUSTON (KTRK) — A former Catholic Charities worker is accused of indecency with a child, and the boy involved says the worker threatened not to give financial help to his family if he told anyone.
The man in question worked at Catholic Charities until 2009. He is currently working for another county agency, but is not yet under arrest, so we went looking for the man wanted by authorities.
In 2007 while working at Catholic Charities, prosecutors say Carlos Valera sexually assaulted an 11-year-old Cuban refugee whose family was receiving help from the charity.
“The defendant would call the victim to his office and ask if he wanted some candy,” said assistant district attorney Tolu Omodele. “The victim would go into his office, and the defendant would grab his hand.”…
…we contacted his former employer. In a statement Catholic Charities says it was made aware of a potential problem two years ago.
- “Catholic Charities is aware of criminal allegations made today in Houston against a former employee of this organization. Two years ago Catholic Charities acted quickly to investigate concerns about the employee. After engaging an outside firm to independently investigate, we terminated the employee in November 2009 for violating our agency’s Ethical and Personal Conduct Policy. We remain committed to safety and wellbeing of our 90,000 clients in the Greater Houston area and fully support the independent and law enforcement investigations of this matter.”…
…”He threatened the victim,” Omodele said. “He told him not to say anything. He told him that if he did tell anyone, that his family would no longer be assisted by the organization.”… Read more here
What I’d like Catholic Charities of Houston to respond to is what the agency’s role was in the delay in the allegations coming forward, which it claims to have known about for two-years.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, children, Cuban, faith-based, Houston, sexual abuse | Tagged: Carlos Valera, Catholic Charities of Houston, child abuse, Cuban, refugees, resettlement, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 12, 2011
The slowdown in refugee arrivals since October 2010 has led to a situation where resettlement agencies are now refocusing efforts on doing needed employment coaching for refugees already here. Did the doubling of the State Department’s per capita grant funding to resettlement contractors last year do the same? Let’s hope so. The federal government increased the funding with no strings attached, which was not necessarily good for the refugees — especially due to the problems at Houston’s four resettlement agencies: The Alliance For Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, and YMCA International Services.
Yani Rose Keo, interim executive director of Houston’s Alliance claims that her agency is now spending more time with refugees, according to an article in the Houston Chronicle.
The number of refugees resettling in the U.S. and Houston has dropped considerably this year because of new security measures, according to the U.S. State Department.
Nationwide, refugee arrivals have declined more than 30 percent, from nearly 54,000 in the first nine months of fiscal year 2010 to about 37,000 during the same period this year.
“We are committed to conducting the most rigorous screening in order to ensure that those being admitted through the refugee program are not seeking to harm the United States,” according to a statement from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
Government officials attribute the slowdown to a new “pre-departure” check that went into effect in late 2010. The additional screening is intended to identify information that might have come to light since initial biographical and biometric checks were conducted...
Fewer arrivals means less funding for YMCA International and four other local refugee resettlement agencies, which receive per-capita grants from the State Department to help refugees transition into their new lives in the U.S.
The grants total about $1,800 per refugee, with $1,100 slated for direct assistance, and the balance paying for administrative costs, such as case managers...
The Alliance For Multicultural Community Services laid off four employees, but hired one back last month, as arrivals began to pick up again, said Yani Rose Keo, interim executive director.
“Normally we are super busy June, July, August, September,” Keo said.
She said Alliance is using the unexpected down time to help refugees who are already here.
“We do a lot of employment coaching right now,” Keo said. “That’s what’s the key. When they get here, we spend more time, closer with them, coaching them.”… Read more here
Posted in State Department, USCIS, Nepali Bhutanese, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, funding, Houston, YMCA International Services, employment/jobs for refugees, Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston | Tagged: Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, houston, human rights, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, refugee, resettlement, security checks, security clearance, State Department, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS, Yani Rose Keo, YMCA International Services | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 28, 2010
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) is a group based in San Francisco that is working to help LGBTI refugees who are fleeing persecution in their home countries. The Bay Area Reporter has an article detailing the work of the organization.
A little known agency founded two years ago in San Francisco is helping to shine a spotlight on the plight of LGBT refugees around the globe who are fleeing persecution in their home countries.
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, called ORAM for short, is the brainchild of Neil Grungras, an openly gay lawyer who specializes in immigration and refuge law whose career has included stints with the State Department and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Since founding ORAM in 2008, Grungras has devoted himself full time to growing the nonprofit. He oversees its program in Turkey for LGBT Iranians seeking to immigrate to Western countries and lobbies United Nations officials in Geneva about the needs of LGBT asylum seekers and refugees from around the globe.
“No one had touched on the issues of LGBT refugees, period, from a legal perspective. No one had confronted the reason why the international system does not protect LGBT refugees,” said Grungras…
Unlike more established groups that advocate on behalf of LGBT people within their home countries, such at Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, ORAM is focused on what happens once an LGBT person crosses the border to a foreign country.
“People constantly ask us to comment about the situation of gays in various countries but that is not what we do. We help people who have actually left the places where they have been persecuted and help them get refugee status and some legal protection and get settled in a new country,” said Grungras. “We don’t make it our business to focus on persecution in the country of origin. We are a humanitarian organization who helps people who have left their country. Of course we know what is going on, but our mission is to help our brothers and sisters reach safety.”…
…”Who ORAM works with is the 95 percent of LGBTs who haven’t been able to get anywhere. They have crossed the border to get out with their lives and that is where they are. But they are not looking to stay in those places,” said Grungras. “When they come to our hands, they are just beginning a very long road to find safe haven. Sometimes they won’t have it for a few years.” …
…This year ORAM has a budget of $650,000. As of June it had a caseload of 35 active clients, five of whom are now living in the United States. Two are in Texas, two in Arizona, and one is living in Florida.
It has three lawyers, including Grungras, working full-time on cases, and a handful of other staffers helping to process and coordinate its caseload.
This summer ORAM opened an office in downtown San Francisco and received $150,000 from the Arcus Foundation to survey numerous non-governmental organizations about their attitudes toward LGBT refugees and what services they offer such clients.
The agency has also launched an “Adopt-a-Refugee” program where it matches donors with one of its clients. Participants must donate $500 in order to be matched with a refugee, and ORAM will provide updates on the person’s immigration case.
The money donated is transferred directly to the adoptee, who can also opt to be in contact with their “adopter” and communicate directly via e-mail or social networking sites such as Facebook.
…Since many LGBT immigrants lack the support of family, the program is a way to help them create new support networks.
“LGBTs are often running away from their family, so to know there is an individual out there who cares enough to open their wallets and give a person money, that is really empowering to them,” said Grungras. here
I wrote to Mr. Grungras several months back, when we posted the case of the two gay Iraqi refugees that were neglected by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, to ask him if it was normal for refugees who are resettled to the US based on their LGBTI status to be assigned to resettlement organizations who offer no services to LGBTI people. And in the Houston case, no services to these refugees who claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
Mr. Grungras said that only just beginning in April did it became possible for OPEs (Overseas Processing Entities) to show refugees’ persecution status in the WRAPS [computer] system. He said that before this the only information about refugees given to resettlement agencies was gender, age, nationality, and special medical issues.
That being the case I hope that LGBTI refugees will no longer be placed with gay-unfriendly groups such as Catholic and fundamentalist Christian resettlement groups.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Houston, Iraqi, LGBT refugees, ORAM | Tagged: asylum, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, Iran, Iraqi refugees, LGBT refugees, Neil Grungras, OPE, ORAM, Organization for Refuge Asylum and Migration, overseas processing entity, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugees, resettlement, Turkey | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 14, 2010
Ugandan human rights-LGBTI rights advocate Valentine (Val) Kalende is visiting the US as a guest of the State Department to explore LGBTI issues in this country. Something tells me the State Department won’t be having her visit Catholic Charities in Houston.
One of Uganda’s most outspoken and prominent human rights activists, Ms. Valentine (Val) Kalende, is visiting the United States under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program to focus on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) advocacy. Ms. Kalende will have discussions with members of government agencies, nongovernmental organizations, faith groups, and the media, as well as with local and federal government officials. In turn, she will talk with U.S. interlocutors and broader audiences about the Ugandan human rights situation and challenges faced by members of the LGBT community.
As a human rights-LGBT rights advocate and Programs and Communications Manager of Freedom and Roam Uganda, Ms. Kalende has been deeply involved in opposition to a proposed “anti-homosexuality” law introduced in 2009 in the Ugandan parliament. The controversial law would sentence some LGBT people to life in prison or even death. A former journalist, Ms. Kalende has written a full accounting of the anti-homosexuality movement in her country. She has also raised awareness of how this legislation would impact all of Ugandan society. Ms. Kalende has been harassed, beaten, and arrested because of her advocacy work. She has been featured by U.S. and international news organizations as one of the most courageous human rights activists in Uganda. here
I think its ironic that the State Department condones mistreatment of LGBTI refugees by faith-based refugee services contractors, by virtue of doing nothing to penalize contractors who engage in this practice, yet on the other hand welcomes LGBTI activists here as honored guests.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, faith-based, Houston, LGBT refugees, State Department, USCCB | Tagged: catholic charities, faith-based, houston, International Visitor Leadership Program, lgbt, lgbti, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Uganda, Valentine (Val) Kalende | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 17, 2010
Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston has dismissed an Iraqi refugee’s complaint of neglect and abuse without citing any substantive reason, here. This is one of the two young male refugees who reported that Catholic Charities of Houston treated them different than other Iraqi refugee refugees, including not giving them basic furnishings here, here, and here. The young men said Catholic Charities staff members told them they only had enough resources to help “families”.
The refugee whose complaint was dimiissed also reported to us that a Catholic Charities Houston employment specialist boasted to a female Iraqi refugee client that he put the young men in a place that befits them as gays — cleaning jobs (CC Houston placed one young man in a cleaning job, while referring the other to another cleaning job).
The complaint response letter stemmed from the “grievance process” that the State Refugee Coordinator, Caitriona Lyons (the former director of the refugee resettlement program at Caritas in Austin – like Catholic Charities of Houston a USCCB affiliate) advised the refugees to embark upon when we forwarded their complaints to her. This is now a standard trick played on refugees when they complain to state refugee coordinators (hello Thuan Nguyen in California, you know what you did, here), referring them to multiple other contracting agencies, while doing nothing. This is a way to push complaints down and out while not addressing the causes of the complaints nor holding anyone (resettlement friends and partners) accountable. Is this now part of the playbook of SCOOR’s (State Coordinators of Refugee Resettlement)?
I should point out that refugee resettlement agencies, and their partners and friends, have complained vigorously to the federal government about people applying for refugee resettlement and asylum and being rejected by the U.S. government with no reasons given. Yet look at how they treat refugees — its pure hypocrisy. The letter that Catholic Charities of Houston sent dismissing the complaint has not one reason, let alone any valid reason, for dismissing his complaints. This is a case in which a community leader even went to the men’s apartment and verified what was in it — not much (what the young men did have had mostly been pulled from the garbage).
In a related matter, the Iraqi refugee involved in filing this complaint tells us that a young Iraqi female refugee client of Catholic Charities of Houston who told the young men what the Catholic Charities employee said about them behind their backs has now vanished. Her family, whom she is quite close to, have reported the disappearance to police, who are investigating the matter.
Posted in beds, Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, faith-based, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, Houston, Iraqi, LGBT refugees, neglect, Texas, USCCB | Tagged: abuse, Caitriona Lyons, caritas, catholic charities, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, employment, furnishings, furniture, gay, glbt, houston, Iraqi, jobs, lgbt, lgbti, neglect, refugee, refugees, resettlment, SCOOR, State Coordinators of Refugee Resettlement, Texas, Thuan Nguyen, TX, us catholic conference of bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 9, 2010
This is an update to the case of the gay Iraqi refugee clients of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston (see earlier posts here and here) who did not receive even the minimum-required services and items that the State Department claims to give to arriving refugees via the State Department’s contractual relationship with resettlement agencies such as the Catholic church and Catholic Charities.
We contacted one of the Iraqi clients in question and he confirmed that the only things he and his roommates received were beds, a table, four chairs, some kitchen supplies, and a vacuum cleaner.
I contacted the Texas state refugee coordinator on February 26th and she said she wasn’t even aware of the newspaper articles in the Dallas Voice, and asked me to send her the links. I sent those, and on March 2nd she wrote:
“…all records show that the minimum requisites set by the Department of State for furniture was met. Apparently, two friends joined one of the gentlemen and moved to a new apartment. Additional beds, linens, and household items were provided for these individuals as well.”
I asked her if she had checked Catholic Charites case files for the refugees in question to verify these facts herself, and whether she needed the refugee’s contact information so that she could speak to him herself and verify if Catholic Charities’ case file matched what he said he received. She responded:
“[the refugee client] needs to follow the client grievance policies established by the agency.”
Notice she didn’t answer the question, and why should the refugee have to struggle filing a grievance with Catholic Charities when it’s already clear that Catholic Charities claims he received all required items? So I wrote back to Caitriona Lyons and said, “Ms. Lyons, it’s not Ali’s responsibility to try to reform Catholic Charities to make them give him what they are required to give him under their government contracts. He has his hands full with looking for work, studying English, etc. As the local government oversight agency you need to investigate to find out why he claims he did not get minimum-required services. What is your understanding of [Catholic Charities'] internal grievance process?” She responded:
“Mr. Coen, again, thank you for bringing this to my attention. We are looking into the situation. Sincerely, Caitriona Lyons”
Looking into it? What does that mean? I wrote back and said, “Again, have you requested that Catholic Charities of Galveston and Houston send you a copy of the case notes for this refugee so that you can review them yourself? Do you have contact information for Ali so that you may speak to him?”
She then didn’t even bother to respond. Apparently she feels that she can sweep the matter under the carpet, and as a government official she certainly doesn’t feel the need to answer to the public.
In the past the Office of Admissions in the State Department has told us to take our concerns and information to the state refugee coordinators, supposedly because they are the local government oversight agency and the State Department relies on them to report on conditions for resettling refugees in each state. Yet, look at this example of what its like to deal with a state refugee coordinator. These people seem to feel that their job is simply to “defend” the private resettlement agency (which is merely a subcontractor of the government), but not defend or look out for the interests of the refugees, or the public that paid for services which were never provided.
Posted in Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Houston, Iraqi, LGBT refugees, Operational Guidance, State Department, Texas, USCCB | Tagged: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, employment services, furniture, gay refugees, glbt, household items, houston, Iraqi refugee, lgbt, minimum required, Operational Guidance, refugees, required items, state refugee coordinator, Texas, USCCB | 5 Comments »
Christopher Coen
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