Last I heard it had been killed in committee. But, apparently the moratorium measure lives! (For background search RRW for “Manchester.”)
And, Lavinia Limon is not happy!
From New Hampshire Public Radio:
The New Hampshire House of Representatives voted today to pass a bill that would allow the city of Manchester to ask for a moratorium on refugee resettlement.
The bill is a seen as a victory for Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas, who has been calling for a moratorium since last July.
Manchester Representative Phil Greazzo, a Republican, says the resettlement agency is not doing a good job helping refugees integrate, and the city’s social services are overwhelmed.
“All those problems that the resettlement agency doesn’t necessarily follow up on, the cities are responsible to follow up on and the taxpayers have to wind up footing that bill,” Greazzo says.
Under the bill New Hampshire towns could ask for a one-year moratorium on new refugee resettlements, which opponents say the state doesn’t have the authority to do.
The head of the national organization in charge of resettling refugees expressed its disappointment with vote shortly afterward.
Lavinia Limon, the President and CEO of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), says the organization met with Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas in October and agreed to resettle only refugees who have family in there.
Lavinia “whoop-de-do” Limon long time readers know was Bill Clinton’s head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement and went out the revolving door and ended up as President of federal contractor USCRI. The former VP of USCRI, Eskinder Negash, is now head of the ORR—the agency that doles out most of the money for this program.
We gave Ms. Limon the nickname “whoop-de-do” when in a fit of anger over charges that her agency neglected Burmese refugees in Waterbury, CT, here, in 2008 she blamed it on the lack of money for refugee resettlement. Of course, our rejoinder is that if we can’t afford to resettle refugees we don’t do it rather then to simply place them in substandard living conditions. The State Department ultimately yanked their contract in Waterbury. But, who knows maybe they are back in business by now.
USCRI has had problems in other cities among them, Kansas City, MO, Bowling Green, KY and Albany, NY.
USCRI is now a leading advocate for giving Syrians Temporary Protected Status, here, as well.