Each year the US State Department, in planning for refugee admissions for the next fiscal year, invites the public to either in person or in writing give testimony about the number of refugees to be resettled beginning on October 1, 2011.
Here is the Federal Register announcement (Hat tip: Mark):
There will be a meeting on the President’s FY 2012 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program on Thursday, May 12, 2011 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Refugee Processing Center, 1401 Wilson Boulevard, Suite 700, Arlington, Virginia. The meeting’s purpose is to hear the views of attendees on the appropriate size and scope of the FY 2012 U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.
Persons wishing to attend this meeting must notify the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at telephone (202) 453-9257 by 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 5, 2011, to reserve a seat. Persons wishing to present written comments should submit them by 5 on Thursday, May 5, 2011 via e-mail to spruellda@state.gov or fax (202) 453-9393.
If you have questions about the public meeting, please contact Delicia Spruell, PRM/Admissions Program Officer at (202) 453-9257. Information about the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program may be found at http://www.state.gov/g/prm/.
Dated: March 30, 2011.
David Robinson,*
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Department of State.
Please send in your comments!
You will be focusing on the number of refugees and from what parts of the world they should be allowed to come. Sometime during the last weeks of September the State Department will prepare a Presidential Determination letter for Congress in which the Obama Administration will recommend how many refugees should come in the upcoming fiscal year. During the Obama years the ceiling has been 80,000 each year (even during the great and on-going recession). I don’t know that Congress has ever said ‘no’ to whatever number the President wants.
Please be polite and professional. Also, and this is VERY IMPORTANT, send a copy of your comments to your US Senators and your Congressman.
* I assume this is the same David Robinson who wrote this incredible and shocking report for the National War College in which he admitted that the Clinton Administration airlifted refugees here during the Bosnian war as a kind of make work (and give money) project to the volags (federal resettlement contractors). The refugees were ultimately airlifted back home (at taxpayer expense)!