Tag: Kentucky refugees

Kentucky: Tales of woe grow as federal shutdown continues to impact resettlement contractors

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The program is grinding to a halt until possibly the end of the month.  Church World Service (one of nine US State Department contractors) says some refugees may be delayed for three months.

Elizabeth Kaznak: might have to dig into private resources to pay our staff!

Here is the news (emphasis mine) from the Journal-Courier which begins with a sad tale (and intersperses sad tales in between the news-worthy bits):

Now more than 2 weeks old, the shutdown forced the U.S. State Department to suspend most refugee arrivals and enact a travel moratorium, partly because the financial, medical and federal benefits or services aren’t available in some areas to help newcomers from Somalia, Iraq, Myanmar, Bhutan and a host of other countries, officials said.

Although most expect Congress to reach an agreement to reopen the government, resettlement won’t restart until at least Oct. 28 — and even then, the shutdown’s cascading effect on complex approval, documentation and travel logistics will delay many arrivals for months.

[….]

The shutdown “really has a domino effect,” said Darko Mihaylovich, director of Louisville’s Catholic Charities Migration and Refugee Services.

The Obama Administration had just announced on October 1 the goal of resettling 70,000 more refugees in FY2014, see here.  Some delays might be as long as three months!

In Kentucky, October arrivals have been canceled across the commonwealth — 40 in Louisville, 19 in Lexington and 14 in Bowling Green and Owensboro — according to local and state resettlement officials.

Church World Service, one of a handful of federally approved resettlement agencies, reported that nearly half of the refugees under its authority, initially cleared for travel in October, will be delayed as long as three months.

Refugees here already shouldn’t worry yet—-they will still have their welfare benefits.

Darko Mihaylovich says welfare/food stamps continue (so far).

For the refugees already resettled in Louisville, help is still available. Mihaylovich said state aid such as food stamps and other aid have continued in Kentucky so far.

The shutdown has prevented some refugees from getting Social Security cards, which they need to obtain work permits.

Oh no!  Since “non-profit” resettlement contractors are paid by the head to resettle refugees, they might have to use their own money while times are tight!  Kentucky Refugee Ministries is a subcontractor of Church World Service.

Kaznak [Elizabeth Kaznak, executive director] of Kentucky Refugee Ministries said Kentucky Refugee Ministries, which operates on a tight budget, is having to use reserves to continue to pay caseworkers and provide services, partly because the shutdown has kept the agency from getting the federal reimbursement of $750 per arrival budgeted for October.

Maria Koerner, assistant director of the Kentucky Office for Refugees, said the shutdown has delayed disbursement of some of the $9 million in federal funding Kentucky gets annually to help pay for cash assistance and medical help for new arrivals, but so far it’s not harming services.

Check out Kentucky Refugee Ministries recent Form 990 (here).  They took in $3.7 million (rounded number) in revenue in 2011.  $3.3 million of that came from GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS while only $290,000 appears to have been privately raised (see p. 9).  Just a reminder: these were supposed to be public-private partnerships when the refugee law was first enacted, not quasi-government agencies.

On page 10 we learn that they paid out $1.6 million for salaries and benefits.  Office expenses and rent came out to approximately $285,000.  So we can see things will be tight if the federal government (the taxpayer!) pipeline continues to slow.

Sure, looks like they don’t have much of a private reserve to fall back on.

Kentucky furniture manufacturer going out of business; immigrants lose jobs

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Hurry!!!  Tell Senator Rand Paul we need to bring in more foreign workers to add to the unemployed refugee workers  in Bowling Green!

Longtime readers of RRW know that Bowling Green is a preferred resettlement site for refugees and has been in the news many times for problems there with the federal refugee contractors, with crime and with its dubious distinction as the home of two Iraqi refugee terrorists (now convicted and in the slammer).

Doors close at Eagle Industries

…by immigrant laborers!

This is the bad news from the Bowling Green Daily News (hat tip: Robin):

Bosnian, Burmese, Spanish, Vietnamese and English were among the languages spoken Wednesday by the more than 150 former Eagle Industries employees who sought help from the Rapid Response Team.

The Bowling Green furniture maker shut down last month with the intention of reopening with new owners. Instead, the company was forced into receivership and 286 people are without a job. So while employees quickly filed for unemployment benefits, they did not fill out all the paperwork needed for continued unemployment benefits, according to A.J. Tutko of the state’s Office of Employment and Career Services.

“You all thought you were going to be called back,” Tutko said, followed by interpreters in different languages.

Workers need to register for job focus career services, a web-based program that matches a person’s skill set with available jobs.

One man asked Tutko if he knew anything about the fate of Eagle. “No, I don’t,” he said.

Tutko was brought in for the meeting by the Rapid Response Team, which is overseen by the Barren River Area Development District. The team helps workers displaced in massive layoffs or closures. The team had two sessions at the BRADD office Wednesday and was scheduled to have two more today. It wasn’t clear how many workers would show up.

Workers in need of health care are desperate!

Jill Lewis, response team coordinator, started talking to workers about COBRA health insurance and how they could find out about those benefits. But workers, through an interpreter, said Eagle had stopped their health insurance benefits three years ago.

“Then they wouldn’t be eligible for this,” Lewis said.

She suggested that people look toward Fairview Health Center for help and suggested they sign up their children under 19 for Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program. It was clear that workers were unaware of that program. Many of the Hispanic women quickly shuffled through their papers looking for information on the program.

Read it all.  There were a few other employers at the event looking for a few workers (maybe!).

For more on the mess the US Office of Refugee Resettlement and the US State Department have made of Bowling Green, type ‘Bowling Green’ into our search function and you will find posts spanning nearly 6 years.

After you let Senator Paul know (his staff person responsible for immigration is Brian Darling, 202-224-4343, Brian_Darling@paul.senate.gov), let Senator McConnell know too!

I have a sneaking suspicion that these employers looking for cheap immigrant labor have been enabling McConnell (and vice versa!) for decades.  Bowling Green would not have become a federal preferred resettlement community without McConnell’s blessing!