Acting Asst. Secretary of State for PRM, Simon
Henshaw, steps down, by Ann Corcoran on January 16, 2018
He says it has nothing to do with the fact that under the Donald Trump
Administration the number of refugees being admitted to the US has plummeted. (I checked yesterday and in the first 2 weeks of January
only around 200 came in.)
For new readers, the Assistant
Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration is normally a
political appointment used by a new President to set a tone in the Department
of State reflecting his (or her) political view on the controversial issue.
President Obama had two hard core
Leftwing Open Borders advocates running the program. The first was Eric Schwartz and many of you know of Anne Richard who
was selected after Schwartz moved on.
The job is a political appointment
that requires Senate approval (both of Obama’s picks were approved).
However, here is the rub: Donald Trump has put no one forward for
this position thus leaving it in the hands of State Department career
professionals.
Perhaps he has a strategy behind
that—-one less battle with Senate Dems, and Rs like Flake and Graham, and maybe
it is easier to shrink the program without a leading figurehead. I don’t
know the answer. Anyway here is the latest news at a pro-more-refugees website.
LOL! My first thought when I saw
this was: okay where is Hans and his reporter pal at
Reuters? From Refugees Deeply: The top U.S. diplomat dealing with refugees has resigned his post.
Simon Henshaw became the third senior official dealing with refugees to depart
or be reassigned in recent weeks.
The acting assistant secretary of
the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) said
it was a routine professional departure. “It very honestly had to do with the
fact that I’d felt I’d spent enough time,” Henshaw told Reuters. “I’m used to
moving on every two or three years.”
The 33-year public service veteran said his move was not a protest at
the Trump administration’s refugee policies, which have seen cuts to financial
support and resettlement numbers as well as travel bans.
Henshaw, who has been with PRM since 2013, will hand over to Carol
O’Connell, the deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs. On January 9 Lawrence Bartlett, previously the head of the
refugee admissions office at the State Department, was reassigned to the office
handling Freedom of Information Act requests.
Since taking office, President
Donald Trump has suspended the entire refugee program for four months, slashed
resettlement places and funding for refugee programs and withdrawn the U.S.
from the negotiations for a global compact on migration.
Earlier in January, Barbara Strack,
chief of the Refugee Affairs Division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration
Services, under the Department of Homeland Security, said she would retire this
month.
The White House is also preparing to slash funding to the U.N. agency supporting
Palestinian refugees (UNRWA). [Yippee!—ed]
I bet the head honchos of the nine
US State Department refugee contractors are running as fast as they can to meet
O’Connell (if they haven’t done so already). If past is prologue, she
will be their information pipeline (and advocate, they hope).
International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular)
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/acting-asst-secretary-of-state-for-prm-simon-henshaw-steps-down/
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