Category: Where to find information

Follow the Money! OMB database now available

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars: 

The Washington Post reported yesterday that OMB (Office of Management and Budget) has launched a new site called USAspending.gov, and here’s what they say about it:

The story began late last year, when two other political opposites, Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), sponsored legislation requiring the federal government to set up a searchable online database tracing federal budget spending by Jan. 1, 2008.

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The goal was to make both the executive branch and Congress accountable for their spending decisions by allowing regular taxpayers to follow the money.

As you will see when you read the article, there is already a site called OMB Watch.   So between the two we should be able to spend some long winter days pouring over the finances involved in Refugee Resettlement.  And, if you don’t find what you are looking for, contact the site and tell them what you need because new data is being added daily, according to one of those involved in designing the site.

“It’s a work in progress. The site doesn’t include as much data as we want, but we are like a gerbil in an exercise wheel, loading data as we speak.”

Alrighty then, let’s give those “gerbils” some work!

Tired of getting no answers?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Are you a frustrated citizen who can’t seem to get any straight answers out of various levels of government on how or why your city or town has become a refugee/asylee receiving center?  Have you done all you can do with your internet research?   Maybe you would like to know who is working with whom both in government and outside government in what appears to be a less than open manner?   Or, would you like to know what nationalities are planned for your town?   Maybe it’s time to step up your research.   

First, start with letters to the agencies you have identified so far.  Ask for specific information, like what non-profits have contracts to resettle refugees, what cities are targeted refugee receiving centers.

 * Write a polite but pointed letter to the State Agency responsible for refugees in your state and ask them what the plan is for your city.  (this is the state level).

 * Write to the US State Department (the federal level).   Address your request to:

Barbara Day                                                                                                                                                                          Bur. Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration,  U.S. Department of State
2201 C Street NW
Washington, DC 20520

 * Write to the Office of Refugee Resettlement here.  (Again, this is the federal level)

If you are not satisfied with the response, then proceed to identify your state’s Public Information Law, for example in Maryland there are very clear guidelines on how to ask for information under the state law here. Just google your state and Public Information law and you will probably get what you need.

By the way, the state Public Information laws also usually apply to city and county government, so be sure to look into how to ask your local government for documents under the public information laws of your state  (assuming county/city officials have not been forthcoming).

For information on the more complex Federal Freedom of Information Act go here.    It may take awhile and they may stonewall you but just the very act of taking time to write a request will signal that you are very serious about getting answers.   For a guide on using the Freedom of Information Act at the US State Department go here.

Write formal letters to your federal legislators, your Congressman and two US Senators, and ask them to get you the information.  They are ultimately responsible for funding refugee resettlement.   Publicize the fact that you have written such a request and later publicize the answers you receive.

Write letters to any private organization you have identified as working in your community on refugees/asylees and ask them what you would like to know politely and in a straightforward fashion.   If they give you answers that’s a good sign, if you feel that you are getting the runaround report it to the federal agency from which they receive their funding.

Good luck!  If you have any questions just e-mail me at the address to your right and I will try to help.

Sources for State information on Refugee programs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Thanks to the sleuthing of citizens of Emporia, KS,  we are learning more things we didn’t know that should help others of you trying to understand this complicated Federal program called Refugee Resettlement.   We have maintained all along that this program is becoming increasingly contentious because local citizens are not fully briefed about the Federal plans that will change the character of their cities and towns.  Citizens then become justifiably angry because they are not given the facts and have to dig for them themselves.

This information was made available to citizens of Emporia in the last couple of days, we should have seen it sooner.   The Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, has a division called the Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA) whose mission is described below:  

The Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA) was created to oversee and provide guidance to State-administered programs that provide assistance and services to refugees, asylees, certain Amerasian immigrants, Cuban and Haitian Entrants, and Victims of Human Trafficking (henceforth referred to collectively as “refugees”). DRA monitors program planning, provision of services, and provides technical assistance to ensure compliance with federal regulations governing the delivery of refugee assistance and services, including cash and medical assistance.

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MISSION

DRA provides direction to States to ensure that refugees are provided assistance and services through State-administered programs that enable them to become employed and economically self-sufficient as soon as possible after their arrival in the United States.

You can read a summary of social service programs and grants programs for refugees here.

Go here for recent state grant figures, number of cases managed and to find your state’s Refugee office. Our previous post on this database is here.

Hot off the presses from Emporia, KS

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I know, I know we haven’t renamed RRW the Emporia Refugee Watch (yet!), but there is so much interesting news being made there we can’t stay away.   Here is the latest from the Emporia Gazette today.  

Since this article is chock full of information, I’m going to focus on a couple of points we need to make over and over again, especially because we have hundreds of new readers every day.   This is what caught my eye in the piece today (the discussion is about direct resettlements from  foreign countries vs. secondary migrations within the US of previously resettled refugees):

Direct resettlements typically occur in metropolitan areas that can absorb diverse populations, she said, citing St. Louis, Chicago and Detroit as examples.

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“That’s why places like Emporia would never be considered,” Lewis said.

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Lewis said that Catholic Charities receives no payment for helping refugees resettle.

Ms. Lewis is the director of Catholic Charities in Kansas City and I am sure she is not misspeaking on purpose. As a matter of fact,  in my reading lately (piles on the floor and over my desk), I learned that many of the agencies both government and non-profit, international and within the US have no idea what some of the others are doing and it is causing internal concern and strife.

On Ms. Lewis first two points, we reported to you just a few days ago that in fact we are resettling refugees in medium and small cities throughout the US.  See our post on the Brookings Institution report.   I wouldn’t call Hagerstown, MD, Cayce, SC, or Erie, PA “large metropolitan areas.” 

Then on her last point that they receive no payments for resettling refugees.   Her organization is a subcontractor of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops which according to this information compiled by Gringomalo’s blog (see also our post on his research) received 89% of its funding ($39 million) from the federal government in 2005.  And, according to its own annual report Catholic Charities of Kansas City received 46% of its annual budget in 2006 from government grants.    Is none of this money used for refugees in any way?

We have had an “Open Invitation” page on the top bar of RRW from the beginning on which we ask for corrections from anyone in the refugee industry for anything we post.  We never get any corrections, thus we can only assume  that our facts and figures are accurate.

Brookings: Refugees are spreading out from traditional “gateway cities”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

At the September forum in Hagerstown, MD someone asked representatives of the US State Dept. about an apparent policy to spread refugees out to small and middle-sized American cities and away from the traditional “gateway cities.”  We have heard, but cannot confirm, that this was a directive of the Clinton Administration.  Early in the meeting the question was brushed aside, but later the State Dept. spokeswoman admitted that the social services in traditional immigrant receiving cities had become over-taxed.

Thanks to the Jacksonville article yesterday, we now know that The Brookings Institution actually reported on this trend back in April.  Check out their report by going to this page at Brookings and then download the document entitled, “Refugee Resettlement in Metropolitan America.” 

Some interesting findings come as no surprise:

*  Little is known about refugee resettlement at the metropolitan level. 

*  Unlike other immigrants refugees have access to considerable federal, state and local support.

*  Sometimes the placement of too many refugees in one area has overwhelmed local communities and stirred tension.  (Ed: No, really!)

On this last point, the government officials and volag employees made the people in Hagerstown (see the website VDARE yesterday for more on our city) feel that they were residents in the only city in the country that had concerns.  That is the part that makes me want to scream.  Why can’t these officials just admit it and say, yes, there are problems but we try our best to resolve them.  Instead they acted shocked, like this had never happened before and therefore there was something terribly wrong with us!

Now, back to Brookings.  You gotta have a look at this report.  As expected, the top three original “gateway cities” were New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago.    But, I was interested in the eleven top cities that had the largest refugee populations as a percentage of the foreign born in the city calculated from figures up to the year 2000.   They are:

Utica-Rome, NY   (See our earlier post on Utica here.)

Fargo-Moorhead, ND-MN

Erie, PA

Binghamton, NY

Spokane, WA

Portland, ME

Lincoln, NE

Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA

Burlington, VT

Manchester, NH

Des Moines, IA

I’ll bet that none of these cities had any advance warning or opportunity to plan ahead for the rapid expansion of social services for the needy required of refugee resettlement sites.  

Note on November 23rd:  Here is a better report on the Brooking Report at the Migration Information Source.