Re-post: Ten reasons there should be a moratorium
on refugee resettlement, Posted by Ann Corcoran on December 5, 2015
Now that the mainstream media and the public
are waking up to the UN/US State Department Refugee Admissions Program and how
it has been operating for the last 35 years, I thought it would be a good idea to
re-post this testimony I gave to the US State Department (first in 2012 at its
annual scoping meeting and repeated in 2013 and 2014).
Anne Richard is
the Asst. Secretary of State for Population Refugees and Migration. Here she
testified last month at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Syrian refugees.
She needs to produce the hearing record for the 2015 ‘scoping meeting’ which we
believe was held in secrecy. Photo and story about Judiciary hearing: http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/19/state-dept-official-syrian-refugees-less-threat-stops-tracking-3-months/ I just
mentioned it in my
previous post on annual reports.
As far as we can tell, the US State Department
did not hold a public scoping hearing in 2015 (for FY2016) because we never saw a notice for it
this year. In these ‘scoping meetings/ hearings’ they ostensibly seek public
input on the size of the program for the upcoming year and they want to know
what countries should be the focus of protection. The ‘scoping’
meeting (like a hearing) was usually held in late spring/early summer of the
preceding year. Prior to our attendance in 2012, these meetings/hearings were dominated by the resettlement contractors and
their groupies.
And, one more thing, the State Department does
not keep and publish a hearing record for this meeting. The only way we
could ever learn what others were saying was to obtain the hard copy testimony
by attending in person! There ought to be a law!
Here is my
testimony in 2012 (repeated in 2013 and 2014): Ten Reasons there should
be no refugees resettled in the US in FY2013—instead a moratorium should be put in place until the
program is reformed and the economy completely recovers.
1)
There are no jobs. The program
was never meant to be simply a way to import impoverished people to the US and
place them on an already overtaxed welfare system.
2)
The program has become a cash cow for
various “religious” organizations and other contractors who very often
appear to care more about the next group of refugees coming in (and the cash
that comes with each one) than the group they resettled only a few months
earlier. Stories of refugees suffering throughout the US are rampant.
3) Terrorist organizations (mostly Islamic) are
using the program that still clearly has many failings in the security
screening system. Indeed consideration should be given to halting the
resettlement of Muslims altogether. Also, the UN should have no role in
choosing refugees for the US.
4)
The public is not confident that
screenings for potential terrorists (#3) or the incidences of other types of fraudulent entry are being
properly and thoroughly investigated and stopped. When fraud is
uncovered—either fraud to enter the country or illegal activity once the
refugee has been resettled—punishment should be immediate deportation.
5) The agencies, specifically the Office of Refugee Resettlement
(ORR), is in complete disarray as
regards its legally mandated requirement to report to Congress every year on
how refugees are doing and where the millions of tax dollars are going that run
the program. The last
(and most recent) annual report to be sent to Congress is the 2008 report—so
they are out of compliance for fiscal years 2009, 2010 and 2011. A
moratorium is necessary in order for the ORR to bring its records entirely
up-to-date. Additionally, there needs to be an adequate tracking system
designed to gather required data—frankly some of the numbers reported for such
measures of dependence on welfare as food stamp usage, cash assistance and
employment status are nothing more than guesses. (The lack of reports for recent years signals either bureaucratic
incompetence and disregard for the law, or, causes one to wonder if there is
something ORR is hiding.)
6)
The State Department and the ORR have so far failed to adequately determine and report (and track once the refugee has
been admitted) the myriad communicable and costly-to-treat diseases
entering the country with the refugee population.
7) Congress needs to specifically disallow the
use of the refugee program for other purposes of the US Government,especially
using certain refugee populations to address unrelated foreign policy
objectives—Uzbeks, Kosovars, Meshketians and Bhutanese (Nepalese) people come
to mind.
8) Congress needs to investigate and
specifically disallow any connection between this program and big businesseslooking
for cheap and captive labor. The federal government should not be acting
as head-hunter for corporations.
9)
The Volag system should be completely
abolished and the program should be run by state agencies with accountability
to the public through their state legislatures. The system as presently
constituted is surely unconstitutional. (One of many benefits of turning the program over to a state agency is
to break up the government/contractor revolving door that is being demonstrated
now at both the State Department and ORR.) The participating state
agency’s job would be to find groups, churches, or individuals who would
sponsor a refugee family completely for at least a year and monitor those
sponsors. Their job would include making sure refugees are assimilating. A
mechanism should be established that would allow a refugee to go home if he or
she is unhappy or simply can’t make it in America. Short of a complete halt to
resettlement-by-contractor, taxpayers should be protected by legally requiring
financial audits of contractors and subcontractors on an annual basis.
10) As
part of #9, there needs to be
established a process for alerting communities to the impending arrival of
refugees that includes reports from the federal government (with local
input) about the social and economic impact a certain new group of refugees
will have on a city or town. This report would be presented to the
public through public hearings and the local government would have an
opportunity to say ‘no.’
For these reasons and more, the Refugee admissions program should be
placed on hold and a serious effort made by Congress to either scrap the whole
thing or reform it during the moratorium. My recommendation for 2013 is to stop the
program now. The Office of the President could indeed ask for
hearings to review the Refugee
Resettlement Act of 1980-–three decades is time enough to see its
failings and determine if reauthorization is feasible or whether a whole new
law needs to be written.
Information on
the three hearings we wrote about and attended are archived here, here and here. (Those files include posts in
which we referenced the hearings/meetings as well.)
By the way,
Richard revolved into the State Department from her contractor job at the
International Rescue Committee. She had a previous stint at the State Dept.
The revolving door is alive and well between contractor and federal
agency involving refugee resettlement.
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2015/12/05/re-post-ten-reasons-there-should-be-a-moratorium-on-refugee-resettlement/
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