Since President Trump’s Election 100 Refugee Offices Have Closed
If this is true, then nearly 1/3 of all refugee resettlement offices have closed around the country. Really?
And, if this is true, why has the Refugee Processing Center (Wrapsnet) not deleted any of the contact information for those now supposedly non-existent agencies from its database, or updated their resettlement site map? What are we paying them for?
First, here is the news I’m referring to. It’s one more pro-more refugees/anti-Trump story about Trump’s (trickling, falling, plummeting) refugee admission numbers—this time at the Christian Science Monitor:
US has cut inflow of refugees to a trickle, dousing hopes upstream
Jeffrey Thielman
Several paragraphs in….
Choking the overall pipeline of refugees means fewer federal dollars for the nonprofit agencies that are tasked with resettling them, which could make it harder to ramp up in the future under a more supportive administration.
Local refugee agencies have cut staff and closed offices; nearly half of all resettlement agencies in Florida have shut down due to the drop in caseloads.
Before the 2016 election, 351 agencies worked on resettlements. A year later, around 100 had closed, says Jeffrey Thielman, chief executive of the International Institute of New England, which places refugees in Boston, Lowell, and Manchester, N.H. and is working with the Jalhoums. [The International Institute of New England is a subcontractor of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of the big nine***)
Under Trump, the nativist wing of the Republican Party that wants both to slash legal immigration and expel undocumented residents has become ascendant. But the vexed politics in Congress on immigration reform has so far thwarted major changes. Refugees make an easier target since the president has discretion to set quotas and priorities for who comes to the US.
Shutting down the entire refugee program would require Congress to act, and there’s no sign of that happening, say refugee agencies. Instead, the administration is trying to gum up the process, a death by a thousand papercuts that is both constitutional and highly effective.
“They’re dragging their feet. They’re deliberately slowing things down,” says Mr. Thielman.
More here at the Christian Science Monitor.
So why is the Refugee Processing Center not updating its information on those offices?
Don’t we (the taxpayers) pay them through the US State Department to provide information as they say here:
Who We Are
We are the creators of WRAPS, a collaborative computer system built to assist in the processing of refugees to the United States. People all around the world use WRAPS (Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System) to process and track the movement of refugees from various countries to the U.S. for resettlement.
What We Do
The Refugee Processing Center (RPC) provides the technical and functional support for WRAPS so that it is accessible, current and easy for our stakeholders to use. Our Operations teams sit on the front lines, helping solve problems and make the most of the WRAPS software system. Our Development teams are constantly innovating, collaborating, testing and fixing things. And behind the scenes, we have trainers and communications teams working with our end users. We are here to make a difference.
Our Role
The Refugee Processing Center (RPC) is operated by the U.S Department of State (DOS) Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM). We assist DOS/PRM in achieving its annual U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) objectives.
Check out the most recent map of resettlement sites—from December 2015—what good is this?
(I know it is impossible to read, you will be able to see it better here, but it is pretty useless since it is so out-of-date.)
That legend in the bottom right hand corner represents the nine contractors that monopolize all resettlement in the US. The 351 (?) are their subcontractors.
And, click here to see the full list (a list that has not been updated since January 1, 2017).
Come on, get with it! We all have a right to know which 100 of these offices have been shuttered!
*** I post the contractor list almost every day because I want new readers to know exactly who is responsible for driving the US Refugee Admissions Program (in addition to the UN!).
The number in parenthesis is the percentage of the nine VOLAGs’ income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees, line them up with (low paying) jobs in food production and cleaning hotel rooms, and get them signed up for their services (welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.
- Church World Service (CWS) (71%)
- Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)(93%)
- Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) (99.5%)
- Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) (57%)
- International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular) (66.5%)
- US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular) (98%)
- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) (97%)
- United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) (97%)
- World Relief Corporation (WR) (72.8%)
Closing? Good. Its about time this waste of taxpayer funding was pared back.