We first told you about this year ago, but now I see that they have a 2009 version of the document, here.   This is just one section from the Governors in which they emphasize CONSULTATION with states and local governments when towns are chosen for refugee resettlement.

1.3.4 Coordination and Consultation. Governors continue to be concerned about the lack of adequate consultation on the part of the voluntary agencies (VOLAGs) and their local affiliates in the initial placement of refugees and on the part of the federal government in the equitable distribution of refugees and entrants.

States have continually urged the federal government to establish a mechanism to ensure appropriate coordination and consultation. However, significant progress has not been made and the following mechanisms need to be considered to address this problem.

• There should be a requirement in the State Department/VOLAG contract to limit placement to areas conducive to resettlement. In addition, VOLAGs and their local affiliates should be required to have a letter of agreement that specifies that there has been consultation and planning for the initial placement of refugees and sets forth the continuing process of consultation. The requirement in the State Department/VOLAG contract to target placement to areas conducive to resettlement should include concurrence by the state.
• DHS, the U.S. Department of State (DOS), and the Office of Refugee Resettlement should coordinate with states receiving entrants and refugees. Entrants should be made eligible for DOS assistance for thirty days, or another mechanism should be developed to allow for a smooth transition of entrants into a community. The current system, in which an entrant simply arrives in the United States without any knowledge of the state, creates a tremendous burden on the community, leaves gaps in the provision of services, and provides no foundation for planning purposes.

Governors should be closely involved in the congressional consultation process through which new refugee admissions levels are determined to ensure that program funding is provided to support the level of refugee admissions.

There is a legal requirement for consultation as we told the Mayor of Manchester, NH, here.

The Refugee Act of 1980, spearheaded by none other than Ted Kennedy and Joe Biden (and others), is 30 years old on April Fool’s Day!   You can find the regulations governing this law at Justia, here.   All of us, myself included, need to be spending more time reviewing those regulations because it appears they are being skirted every day by some participants (federal and state governments and volags) and we need to start reminding them to follow the law!

One final thought!  The Obama White House is gleefully grabbing more and more executive power as the legislative branch’s power is weakening.  The National Security Council does not have the authority to reform the refugee program, here.

Check out our fact sheet page above (on the header).  We have a new one.  Our original fact sheet was getting way out of date (I wrote it in 2007).  This one has been written in collaboration with others and we encourage any of you who wish to add something to let us know, with one caveat!  Don’t send us information that is readily available to the mainstream media and prepaired by those in the refugee industry.

Also, note that we are still working on the contact information for government employees, so any help you can give there is greatly appreciated.

For new readers:  This is also filed in our ‘where to find information’ category here.

The first document we told you about here is a submission to Congress when Obama set the ceiling for refugee admissions for FY2010.  Read my earlier post and then check out the document here.

The second document, hat tip Susan, is a 2010 report to Congress also from the State Department about Refugee Assistance and Emergency Migration funding, here.

Note, this post is archived in our ‘where to find information’ category.