Tag: Burmese refugees

Welcoming counties! Are you ready to provide foreign language interpreters?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Please pay attention Wyoming!  Do you have a plan for your county courts?

Continuing on a theme we have been mentioning lately thanks to reader ‘pungentpeppers’ interest (and ours!) in the issue, “welcoming” counties can now add to their social service budgets (in addition to welfare of all sorts, medical care and subsidized housing), the cost of interpreters for the myriad languages refugees are bringing to your cities and towns.

Martha Thawnghmung, executive director of the Burma Center said it is difficult to interpret the Burmese language because there are so many “cultural backgrounds.”
We saw that in the Esar Met murder trial in Utah recently.

Below is a story from Calhoun County, Michigan, (Michigan is one of the top refugee resettlement states) about their plan for how to cope.  There is a little wishful thinking about how to collect the cost of the interpreter service from the foreign-language speaker in need of it, but as that old saying goes, you can’t get blood from a turnip!

From the Battle Creek Enquirer:

Until Thursday, Calhoun County courts lacked a plan to help those who don’t speak fluent English understand what is happening in court proceedings.

Now the county’s courts comply with state rules after a Language Access Plan was approved by the state.

Last week state administrators approved the Calhoun County Courts Language Access Plan. The plan is to help limited English proficient people, defined as anyone whose primary language is not English or has a limited ability to read, write, speak or understand English.

Court interpreters not just for criminal cases anymore:

The LAP is supposed to help the court identify those who need interpreters for court proceedings. Those who may need help can choose from “I speak …” cards in 12 languages to help officials figure out which interpreter to call.

Language assistance resources for in and out of the courtroom will be provided as well as forms and documents and service referrals.

The court is responsible for training judges and court staff and coordinating with county clerks to help those who lack English proficiency to receive services.

“I think it’ll be a definite improvement in this application to civil cases,” said Jeff Albaugh, county court administrator. “Courts were required to provide language interpreters for parties, the defendants and witnesses in criminal matters, so really what this has done is it has expanded that into the civil litigation area.”

For now (and always!) the county will be stuck with the bill!

Albaugh said in the past the average cost for an interpreter has been $250 [an hour?—ed].  Albaugh said the courts are trying to get reimbursement for the interpreters but he also knows many service recipients can’t afford the costs. He said for now, the county will be stuck with the bill.

Photo is from this story about Calhoun County’s Burma Center.

US State Department: Burmese should get applications in soon, program to close

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  Ft. Wayne, IN Burmese worried they won’t be able to get their extended family in, here.

The US State Department is moving on to other ethnic groups, like the Congolese, or perhaps the Syrians, having brought 73,000 Burmese to the US since 2005.  We hope that the closing of the program from Myanmar/Burma means that the Burmese Rohingya Muslims need not apply!

State Department spokesman, Jen Psaki: Reaching “natural conclusion,” Burmese need to get applications in fast!

From AFP:

Washington — The United States is winding down a program which has helped to resettle 73,000 refugees from Myanmar over almost a decade, a US official confirmed Thursday.

After being introduced in 2005 primarily to help Karen and Hmong minorities that have been displaced in Myanmar, also known as Burma, “we’re reaching the natural conclusion” of the program, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

“With our robust resettlement program, the number of eligible Burmese refugees has been reduced significantly, and not all Burmese who are eligible for resettlement consideration are interested in permanent resettlement,” she said.

Refugees from Myanmar who are still interested in resettling in the US should get their applications in quick, Psaki added.

“If those who are eligible are interested, they should apply now, and we will see the process through for all those who apply.”

A politically incorrect observation!

I often wonder if the resettlement contractors just get sick of certain ethnic groups and urge the State Department to bring them a new variety of refugee to add to their diverse collection.  It is horrible to suggest, but sometimes I think they are like animal hoarders who have a mental disorder and want only to add to their collection while it is beyond their means to do so—animal hoarders want to possess the animals even if they cannot afford to care for them in a humane fashion.

Utah murder trial ends with guilty verdict for Burmese Muslim refugee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It was a trial that riveted readers of The Salt Lake Tribune for the last couple of weeks, but barely made news outside of Utah.  Esar Met, a Burmese Muslim man, was arrested in 2008 for the brutal sexual assault and murder of a 7-year-old Burmese girl in their Salt Lake City apartment building.   A jury found him guilty yesterday.

Met had only been in the US one month and had been assigned to live in a building filled with fellow Burmese, but they were all Christians and roommates described the tension that created among them.  They had lived in separate parts of the camp in Thailand.

Hser Ner Moo’s father Cartoon Wah (right) said after the verdict: “My only daughter is still no more.”
http://www.ksl.com/?sid=22985680

From The Salt Lake Tribune:

He lured the child with games and treats. He made her laugh, helped her feel safe and welcome in the depths of his basement home.

But on March 31, 2008, a jury ruled Friday, kindness turned to violence as Esar Met sexually assaulted, beat and killed 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo.

Jurors entered the courtroom Friday after more than five hours of deliberation looking haggard and spent. They had sat through nine days of testimony, 41 witnesses and more than two hours of closing arguments that morning.

Two female jurors held tissues at the ready. Their eyes looked as if they had already been crying.

In the gallery, packed with friends and family of the young victim, a tense silence filled the air, punctuated only by the quiet sobs of Pearlly Wa — the mother who lost her only daughter nearly six years ago.

Met was convicted of child kidnapping and aggravated murder, both first-degree felonies that could land the 27-year-old Burmese refugee in prison for the rest of his life.

[….]

He had been in the country just one month, and would spend the next six years behind bars awaiting trial.

He could get 20 years to life when he is sentenced in May.  Scary thought that he could ever be released.  And, too bad for Utah taxpayers, maybe they should appeal to Congress for an extra stipend to pay for his trial and for the next 20 years of his life since it was the federal government—the US State Department and its contractors (Catholic Charities?)—that dumped him in Utah.

By the way, over the years The Salt Lake Tribune has acted like a real investigative news outlet, even sending a reporter to Thailand back in 2008.  One thing reporter Julia Lyon learned is that Met was considered “not right” in the camp, so who decided he would be a good citizen of America?

For new readers, all of our previous coverage of the case, going back years, may be found by clicking here.

Defense rests without calling a witness in Utah refugee murder trial

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Final arguments will be today.

US State Department brings diversity to Utah. Esar Met at trial in Salt Lake City.
http://www.capitalbay.com/news/454208-hser-ner-moo-burmese-girl-7-killed-in-utah-died-a-painful-death.html

For new readers, see our previous posts on the trial of Burmese Muslim, Esar Met, who is accused of murdering a 7-year-old Burmese Karen Christian girl in the apartment building where both were resettled by the US State Department and its Utah contractors.

Apparently, the defense could find no one to testify on Met’s behalf.  Gee, no one from the State Department could come and attest to his character and say how they had chosen a sane and decent man to give a new life to in America?

From the The Salt Lake Tribune:

Only one man knows where Esar Met was when a 7-year-old girl took her last breath.

Was he standing over her, as prosecutors have alleged, having brutally assaulted and slain Hser Ner Moo in the basement of his South Salt Lake home?

Or was he somewhere else, as defense attorneys have said? Gone to a bus, perhaps, attempting to navigate unfamiliar routes to the home of his aunt and uncle in Cottonwood Heights.

Only Met can answer these questions.

But on the eighth day of his trial, Met declined to testify in his own defense.

Speaking through a Burmese interpreter Thursday, Met invoked his right to remain silent, telling an 11-person jury he would not take the stand to answer to the charges against him: first-degree felony child kidnapping and aggravated murder.

Defense attorneys rested their case before 3rd District Judge Judith Atherton without calling a single witness.

If found guilty, there is no death penalty for Met because he couldn’t understand English, he would likely spend the rest of his life being cared for by the taxpayers of “welcoming” Utah.  A lesson in diversity for prison guards? Halal food?  Special prayer times?

Bhutanese and Burmese refugee teens dropping out of highschool at “alarming” rate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is what a new report from a group that studies higher education issues involving Asians in America is saying.

Dr.Chia Youyee Vang: “alarming” statistics

From Diverse Issues in Higher Education:

A startling 39 percent of U.S. Burmese are high school dropouts, so not surprisingly, 30 percent of this ethnic group lives below the poverty line, according to a new report.

Scheduled for release Wednesday, the report, titled “Invisible Newcomers,” explores the educational attainment, socioeconomic challenges, migration and settlement experiences of the Burmese and Bhutanese, who make up the two largest, recent refugee groups in this country. The report’s authors are Dr. Chia Youyee Vang, an associate professor of history and comparative ethnic studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and Dr. Monica Mong Trieu, an assistant professor of sociology and Asian American studies at Purdue University. It was issued by the Asian & Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF) in collaboration with the Association for Asian American Studies.

Since 2004, more than 80,000 Burmese have arrived in the United States after fleeing political, religious and economic persecution. Bhutanese refugees began coming in 2008 to escape discriminatory social and political rule. The migration of both ethnic groups grew so rapidly that, in 2011, refugees from Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, made up 30 percent and those from Bhutan comprised 26 percent of people resettled in this country.

Calling such statistics “alarming,” Vang and Trieu say that intensive educational and social support should be provided to teens to improve the likelihood of high school completion. Furthermore, the dropout rate among Burmese Americans is almost twice that of the national dropout rate among non-Asians here.  [More than black American teens?—-ed]

Read it all.

Gee, that sounds like another generation on welfare to me.

In a related story, the state of Kentucky is considering extending graduation time for refugee teens, here.  Add that to the cost of refugee resettlement when your city’s politicians are “welcoming” more refugees and immigrants.