Safety of Refugees in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program

Christopher Coen

Friends of Refugees

September 8, 2005

 

     A 2002 gang attack upon a group of “Lost Boys of Sudan” refugees in Chicago brought to light the issue of the safety of refugees in the U.S. refugee resettlement program. This attack was precipitated by a series of attacks on the Lost Boys in Chicago in which warnings about the attacks to government and refugee resettlement agencies went unheeded.  The gang attack was followed by a series of further attacks on the Lost Boys in Chicago in which the U.S. government and the private resettlement agencies refused to resettle the refugees to safer neighborhoods. These attacks highlighted a larger problem in which refugees in the U.S. resettlement program have been placed wherever the private resettlement agencies happen to have offices, rather than places that are most appropriate for them. In addition, resettlement agencies have repeatedly placed refugees in urban ghettos and in rundown and dilapidated housing complexes with no regard for the refugees’ welfare. Refugees have been repeatedly robbed, beaten, threatened and even murdered.

     Friends of Refugees has now documented at least four murders of Sudanese refugees in recent years. In each case, these murders occurred in urban neighborhoods of large cities throughout the U.S..  Ring Paulino Deng, 19, was stabbed to death in the parking lot of his apartment complex in Nashville on June 8, 2001.¹  Ring survived four years of slavery in Sudan, as well as an escape to Egypt, but he survived less than a year and a half in the US.  Moses Pieny, 25, also off Nashville, was murdered on May 30, 2003, after being lured to a house, tied up and robbed.²  He was later shot several times and his body was dumped in a vacant lot.  Moses Pieny had survived the civil was in Sudan, a 1,000-mile desert walk to Ethiopia, as well as forced expulsion from Ethiopia at gunpoint across a rain-soaked, crocodile infested river, but he survived less than two years in Nashville.  James Kuch Mangui, 24, was murdered in Louisville on August 22, 2004.³  James Kuch was shot in the chest, chased, and shot again in the back, again, in an apartment complex parking lot.  He had also survived harrowing childhood years on the run during the civil was in Sudan, but survived in the U.S. for only three years.  Marieu Alajabu was murdered in Jacksonville after someone broke into his home during the night.  He wife and children survived only by hiding until the perpetrators had finished burglarizing the apartment and left.⁴

    

     Some injuries and deaths of “Lost Boys of Sudan” refugees in recent years also appear to stem from untreated and under-treated trauma-related mental illness. These cases involve young refugees who have been severely traumatized early in life, and then resettled to the U.S., with its unfamiliar culture, with little support. Several Lost Boys refugees have been shot by police; two of them fatally, in cases involving trauma-related mental illness. In April 1997, Simon Deng, a 25 year-old Sudanese refugee, bought a 9MM rifle and went to his refugee resettlement agency, Catholic Social Services office in North Phoenix, and looked for his caseworkers.⁵ He began firing his gun in the air and, although no one was hurt, he later fired at a police officer who returned fire and shot Simon dead.  Joseph Abil arrived in Dallas in 1995 at the age of 20.⁶ Feeling isolated he eventually moved to Phoenix to be near other Sudanese refugees. Although Abil was treated with medication for mental illness, he lived alone and soon descended into a disturbed state of mind and stopped going to work. One afternoon in February 2005, he left his apartment and headed for the freeway where he wandered alone along the median during rush hour. When a highway patrol officer approached him, Abil became agitated and refused to move to a safe location. The officer first fired a Taser at Abil, who then retaliated by throwing rocks at the officer. The officer then shot him dead. These Lost Boys refugees who had managed to survive years of hardship in Africa fell dead in their new found home in America.

 

     In Phoenix, a Lost Boy refugee named Peter Deng was beaten up, carjacked and wrongly accused of fathering a child in 2001.⁷  He now rarely goes out in public, especially at night, and he says he fears that people will hurt him and that he will go to jail. In Tucson Peter Dor Kuol was also wrongly accused of breaking into a woman’s home and spent several weeks in jail.⁸ In September 2002 in Rochester, Minnesota, Christofar Atak, a 31 year-old Sudanese refugee was shot in the back at point-blank.⁹ He had been drinking and fighting with his brother before police arrived. When a police officer arrived he told Atak to put his hands in the air and turn around, but before he could turn around, the officer shot him. The officer claimed he thought he was using his Taser, even though a Taser is much lighter and shaped different than the handgun the officer was carrying. In Chicago, in December 2001 a Lost Boy refugee named David Mayol Mayen was confronted by three Chicago police officers, while he waited in line at the Morse L station.¹⁰ He was pulled aside and questioned about what country he came from and who his resettlement agency was. While showing police officers his documents, he asked them why he had been stopped. He was told to shut up. He later asked again why he was being confronted but they would not tell him, and he was then thrown to the ground. He had to be taken to the hospital for his injuries, which included broken ribs, and severe bruising to the knees, neck and ribs. In addition, all of his documents were confiscated and he never received them back from the police, except for his social security card which was mailed back with the social security number erased from the card. When he later appeared in court, all charges against him were dropped.

 

     Other Sudanese refugees, mostly Lost Boys refugees, have also been assaulted in the urban neighborhoods where the U.S. Department of State resettled them. Chol Majak and Anthony Ring Akech were with other young Sudanese refugees in their car at a gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, when they were threatened for no apparent reason by young men with guns.¹¹ A car chase ensued in which the refugees were repeatedly shot at. Both of the young men were injured, with Anthony Ring suffering a gunshot to the leg. The Lost Boys have also been repeatedly assaulted in Atlanta. David Ajuan and another Lost Boy each had their teeth punched out in separate assaults. Another Lost Boy in Atlanta was recently surrounded by a group of young people and viciously beaten. After he was able to escape from the group, the perpetrators went to a nearby apartment occupied by Sudanese refugees and broke down the door. In Boston, Daniel Mayak Deng, 25, was found unconscious outside in the parking lot of his apartment complex.¹² He had also been assaulted and suffered a severe closed head injury. Doctors had to remove part of his skull to relieve the pressure in his brain, and he remained close to death during the three days following the assault. He remained hospitalized for a month and lost his memory as well as his ability to speak. Another Lost Boy in Boston named Jacob Majok was robbed and beaten.¹³ Yet another Lost Boy in Boston was stabbed, and another assaulted and suffered a broken jaw.¹⁴

     

     U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) monitoring reports have also documented many other high-crime areas where refugees have been placed. At the United States Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) affiliate in Houston two refugees interviewed by PRM monitors said that they felt that their neighborhood was bordering on unsafe.¹⁵ Another refugee family indicated that just a few days before government monitors arrived, they had heard gunshots and the police had come to the apartment complex. At the USCCB affiliate in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a refugee was robbed at gunpoint at the apartment complex where the was resettled.¹⁶ At the USCCB affiliate in Atlanta the neighborhood surrounding one apartment complex where many refugees were placed was known as the “war zone”.¹⁷ It was reported that gunshots were frequently heard in the area. At the USCCB affiliate in Memphis a female Nigerian refugee was placed in the partially renovated Catalina Apartments in a trash-strewn, crime-ridden neighborhood where there were shootings every day.¹⁸ The neighborhood was described as an urban war zone, where bullets would sear the night and sex offenders and drug dealers anchored street corners. Other refugee families at this apartment complex told local newspaper reporters that they were terrified, hearing gunshots in the neighborhood and seeing prostitutes and crack dealers next door at a brick eyesore with broken and boarded-up windows. Refugee women were also routinely propositioned in the parking lot. A female Bosnian refugee reported encounters with a flasher, a purse-snatcher, and young men in a car who followed her as she walked to the bus stop. She said that gunfire kept her awake at night. A male refugee reported that a stray bullet had entered the shaky wooden door of his apartment, barely missing him. Lost Boys refugees in Cleveland have had guns pointed at them in the ghetto where USCCB placed them.¹⁹ One of these refugees was stabbed in the face.

     

     During the year before a PRM monitoring visit to the USCCB affiliate in Chicago in November 2000, some refugees complained about the housing, saying that they were afraid of the neighborhoods they were placed in.²⁰ At that time, PRM monitors dismissed this as simply “perceived” security of the neighborhood. PRM staff consistently ignored warnings from concerned citizens about the attacks in Chicago throughout that time. At Heartland Alliance, the IRSA affiliate in Chicago, a refugee was assaulted in his apartment building and had to be hospitalized in the year 2000.²¹ Interestingly, no mention was made in Heartland Alliance’s case notes about this assault, even though the caseworker had visited the refugee in the hospital. Another refugee family in Chicago resettled by Heartland Alliance told PRM monitors that they did not feel safe in their neighborhood either. In the years 2001 through 2004 there were a total of at least ten separate attacks in Chicago involving at least 21 of the Lost Boys of Sudan refugees.²² They were all attacked and/or robbed either in their buildings or on the streets of the neighborhoods in which they were resettled. During and before the time of those attacks, the resettlement agencies made no attempt to move the refugees to safe neighborhoods, in spite of repeated warnings. The author personally warned PRM monitors Kelly Gauger and Taiya Smith, during their April 2002 monitoring visit to Heartland Alliance, that the attacks which the author had warned the PRM about several months earlier were continuing. PRM monitors rejected the notion that the refugees were in any danger. The Latin Kings gang attack on ten of the Lost Boys refugees occurred only one month later, in May of 2002.²³ During the attack, ten of the Lost Boys refugees were assaulted with fists, bear bottles and a metal rod, and three of the refugees were stabbed. Two of these refugees were severely injured by the stabbings and had to be hospitalized. In February 2004 one Lost Boy was beaten on a bus on his way to school.²⁴ In the summer of 2004 another Lost Boy named Bior Akoi was standing at the Morse station of the L-line when he was beaten and knocked down a flight of steps.²⁵ His teeth were knocked out and, among other injuries, he suffered a severe brain injury and had to be hospitalized for almost three months. For many months, this young refugee had to breathe through a tracheotomy while living in a nursing home and will have to undergo additional surgeries. Sudanese refugees who visited Bior reported that he could not even recognize them. At IRSA’s affiliate in Houston, YMCA International Services, PRM monitors found a refugee family in an apartment in a high-crime area.²⁶ At the Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network (FIRN), the IRSA affiliate in Columbia, Maryland, a refugee family told PRM monitors that they had initially been placed in a crime-infested area.²⁷

     

     At an International Rescue Committee (IRC) affiliate in Washington DC, PRM monitors found, once again, that there had been reports of criminal activity at the apartment complex in which refugees were placed.²⁸ The children of another refugee family reported that drug dealers had been approaching them at the complex. At the IRC affiliate in New York City a refugee family said that they felt unsafe in the neighborhood IRC had placed them in, as they had been robbed.²⁹ They also indicated that a homicide occurred in front of the building next door. At the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) affiliate in Houston PRM monitors found refugee families who had also been placed in a high crime area.³⁰ In Spokane a World Relief refugee client was threatened by his neighbor with a knife.³¹ The refugee’s case notes at World Relief Spokane had no documentation that anything had been done to address the neighbor’s hostility. 

     

     There is no reason that the ‘Lost Boys of Sudan’ refugees, who have already experienced so many traumas in their short lives, should have been brought to the U.S. and placed in areas so dangerous to them that many of these young men now bear stabs wounds, permanent brain injuries, additional emotional wounds, or are dead as a result of the attacks they have been subjected to. Refugees whom the PRM placed in other areas have never once been assaulted or injured. For example, the nearly 400 Lost Boys placed in Grand Rapids, Michigan and its suburbs have experienced no assaults or other crimes. In addition, none of the Lost Boys in Fargo has ever been assaulted. What this indicates is that some large urban environments are predictably dangerous for young free-case refugees (cases where the resettling refugee is not rejoining a previously resettled family member), female refugees, and others, while other localities are predictably dangerous. The PRM and the resettlement agencies knowingly place refugees in harm’s way as they continue to resettle them into urban neighborhoods of large U.S. cities where refugees have already reported feeling threatened and have experienced repeated robberies and assaults.

     

     The issue of the safety of refugees resettled to the U.S. is part of a larger problem of government agencies and the private resettlement agencies failing to be accountable to the refugees and public whom they serve. Citizen groups and members of the community have been repeatedly brushed off and ignored by government agencies when attempting to bring concerns to their attention. The federal government has also cloaked the U.S. refugee resettlement program in secrecy in an attempt to avoid any accountability to the public. The resettlement program will continue to be mired in problems as long as government and resettlement agencies continue to avoid accountability.

 

Works cited

¹ Amy Green, “Sudanese finds refuge from war in U.S., only to die in traffic dispute”, The Commercial Appeal, (June 16, 2001) : 1+

 

² Holly Edwards, “’We came here to escape death’: Friends recall wit, kindness of ‘lost boy’”, The Tennessean, (June 7, 2003) :  1+

 

³ Peter Smith, “Slaying shakes lives of refugees”, The Courier-Journal, (August 31, 2004) :  1+

 

⁴ Anyang, Samual Majak, Telephone interview, 17 October, 2004.

 

⁵ Leigh Flayton, “Lost in America”, Salon.com, (Aug. 16, 2005):  1+   

 

⁶ Ibid.

 

⁷ Ibid.

 

⁸ Kuol, Peter Dor, Telephone interview, 3 February, 2004.

 

⁹ Atak, Christofar, Interview, 30 August, 2004.

 

¹⁰ Mayen, David Mayol, Telephone interview, 7 July, 2002.

 

¹¹ Anyang, Samual Majak, Telephone interview, 17 October, 2004.

 

¹²Ater, Abraham Deng, Telephone interview, 17 October, 2004.

 

¹³ Mun, Abraham Akuoch, Telephone interview, 14 October, 2004.

 

¹⁴ Bennett, Dennis E., The Lost Boys of Sudan: A Ministry of Servant’s Heart, Hp. 2003 [copyright]. Online. Servant’s Heart (Wendy from Boston). No longer Available :  http://www.sudanlostboys.com. 25 January, 2002.

 

¹⁵ Jessica Warden-Yutacom, and Bettina Halvorsen, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Associated Catholic Charities of Galveston and Houston), [Houston-Texas], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 16-17 July, 2001.

 

¹⁶ Jack Amick, and Sandy Dean, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Catholic Human Development Outreach), [Grand Rapids-Michigan], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 5-6 March, 2001.

 

¹⁷ Kelly Gauger, and Jessica Warden-Yutacom, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Catholic Social Services, Inc.), [Atlanta, Georgia], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 28 July, 2000.

 

¹⁸ Shirley Downing, “One war zone to another: Refugee program here battles low funding, squalor, critics”, The Commercial Appeal, (December 23, 1998) :  1+   

                        

¹⁹ Cook, Carole, Telephone interview, 5 July, 2002.

 

²⁰ Jack Amick, and Kearn Schemm, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (United States Catholic Conference of Bishops, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, refugee Resettlement Program), [Chicago, Illinois], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 13-14 November, 2000.

 

²¹ Jack Amick, and Kearn Schemm, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (IRSA, Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights), [Chicago, Illinois], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 14-15 November, 2000.

    

²² Chicago Police Department, Police Reports

• R.D. No. G-736536, December 9, 2001.

• R.D. No. G-776040, December 29, 2001.

• R.D. No. HH-396306, May 25, 2002.

• R.D. No. HH-541939, July 28, 2002.

• R.D. No. HH-602726, August 24, 2002.

 

²³ Craig Pinley, “Covenant Sudanese Refugee Stabbed in Gang Attack”, Covenant News, (May 31, 2002) :  1

 

²⁴ Duom, Peter Ajith, Telephone interview, 20 March, 2004.

 

²⁵ Deng, Paul Majur, Personal interview, 9 October, 2004; Garang, Stephen, Personal interview, 11 October, 2004.

 

²⁶ Jessica Warden-Yutacom, and Bettina Halvorsen, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (IRSA, YMCA International Services), [Houston, Texas], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 17-18 July, 2001.

 

²⁷ Jack Amick, Jan Belz, and Kelly Gauger, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (IRSA, Foreign-Born Information and Referral Network), [Columbia, Maryland], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 28 October, 1999.

 

²⁸ Kelly Gauger, and Jack Amick, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (International Rescue Committee, IRC Washington D.C. Regional Office), [Washington, D.C.], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 24-25 October, 2000.

 

²⁹ Kelly Gauger, and Katie Stana, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (International Rescue Committee, IRC New York, [New York, NY], U.S. Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 2 August, 2001.

 

³⁰ Jessica Warden-Yutacom, and Bettina Halvorsen, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report (CWS-EMM-LIRS, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston), [Houston, Texas] U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 19-20 July, 2001.

 

³¹ Jessica Warden-Yutacom, and Delicia Sprucell, Affiliate Monitoring Report, Final Report, (World Relief, Spokane Office), [Spokane, Washington], U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, 24-25 April, 2001.