DOZENS OF REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT OFFICES TO CLOSE AS TRUMP DOWNSIZES PROGRAM

Exclusive: Dozens of Refugee Resettlement Offices to Close as Trump Downsizes Program

Feb. 14, 2018, at 6:06 a.m.

By Mica Rosenberg

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Refugee resettlement agencies are preparing to shutter more than 20 offices across the United States and cut back operations in more than 40 others after the State Department told them to pare their operations, according to plans seen by Reuters.

The slated closures, which are being reviewed by the State Department for final approval, follow President Donald Trump's decision to dramatically reduce the number of refugees that will be allowed into the United States in 2018.

The State Department has said the drop in refugee numbers, from the 110,000 ceiling set by the Obama administration to45,000 for 2018, means the country no longer needs all of the 324 resettlement offices that were operating at the end of 2017. This year's cap on refugees is the lowest since 1980.

The offices, run by private non-profit agencies that contract with the U.S. government, provide a range of services to refugees, from assisting them in finding housing and jobs, to helping them navigate banking, medical care, school enrollment and other complexities of life in America.

Opponents of the resettlement program say it is more costly to resettle refugees in the United States than it is to give aid to displaced people overseas.

"The changes will consolidate smaller affiliates, reduce costs and simplify management structures to help the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program run in a way that is fiscally responsible and sustainable in the long term," State Department spokeswoman Cheryl Harrissaid in an email.

Refugees can access services from the resettlement centers for up to five years after they first arrive, so the closures could potentially affect thousands of recent arrivals, said Robert Carey, who directed the Office of Refugee Resettlement under President Barack Obama.

“The population doesn’t go away when you turnoff the spigot,” Carey said. “If the intent is really to have people integrate into society then doing this is counter to that intent.”

The Trump administration has said it wants refugees to assimilate quickly, both to promote national security and so that they can become self-sufficient.

"We've never seen a cut of this size and also a cut of this impact," said Hans Van de Weerd an executive at the International Rescue Committee, one of the nine resettlement agencies.

While the size of the U.S. refugee program has fluctuated over the years, it has never seen an across-the-board cut to dozens of offices in such a short period of time, he said.

Van de Weerd said the cuts could make it difficult for the United States to ramp up refugee numbers in the future." It took years to build up this capacity," he said. "Once you break it down it's not easy to build it up again."

Some of the proposed closures are in cities with more than one resettlement office, but others are in places where residents will have no other place to turn.

The only two resettlement offices in Louisiana would close, and the only office in Hawaii would have to sharply curtail its operations, according to the plans developed by the agencies.

While the one resettlement office in Hawaii will remain open for now to provide ongoing services, it will not accept any new refugees this year and as a result will receive far less in government funding to help refugees already living in the state, said Eskinder Negash, the acting head of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, which partners with the Hawaii center.

NATIONWIDE CUTS

The plans to shutter local offices were drawn up after a Dec. 1 meeting between State Department officials and representatives of the refugee agencies. The government told the agencies that offices expected to handle fewer than 100 refugees in fiscal year 2018 would no longer be authorized to resettle new arrivals.

In response, the agencies drew up proposals for closing some offices and downsizing the operations of others.

In addition to the closures, 11 planned new offices, two in Washington State and others in places from New Mexico to Indiana, will not be opening their doors in 2018.

Early in his administration, Trump issued an executive order temporarily barring all refugees, which was challenged in court, but ultimately implemented with some revisions. Since then, the government has added new vetting procedures for refugees and their families applying to come to the United States from certain countries deemed to be security risks.

The vetting measures are likely to significantly slow down the pace of arrivals, refugee organizations have said, and in the end the United States may not reach its cap for the year of 45,000 refugees.

In January, 1,385 refugees were admitted, compared to 6,777 in the same month last year and 4,376 in January 2016,according to government statistics.

(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg; Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Sue Horton and Ross Colvin)

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2018-02-14/exclusive-dozens-of-refugee-resettlement-offices-to-close-as-trump-downsizes-program

GOOD! WE DO NOT WANT ANY MORE REFUGEES, ASYLUM, TPS OR ILLEGAL ALIENS!

NOW SET A QUOTA TO DEPORT 5,000 OFF OUR SOIL PER WEEK

THEY ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE PERMANENTLY...START DEPORTING AND REUNITE THEIR FAMILIES ON THEIR SOIL.

IF O'VOMIT COULD BRING THEM IN BY THE THOUSANDS...THEN TRUMP CAN BOOT THEM OUT BY THE THOUSANDS!

GET THEM OFF OUR MEDICAL CARE, WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS, HOUSING AND OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS. WE DO NOT WANT TO PAY FOR IT!

The Fiscal Cost of Resettling Refugees in the United States


Report by Matthew O’Brien and Spencer Raley | February 5, 2018

---

Executive Summary


At the end of 2016, the United Nations estimates that a record-setting 65.3 million people had been forcibly displaced from their homes due to conflict or persecution. Many of those people will seek refuge in the developed countries of the West, including the United States. Reflecting America’s long tradition of providing refuge to the oppressed, we have admitted over 3.5 million people since 1980 and 96,900 refugees just in the last year in 2016.


As the nation considers what levels of immigration we can fiscally and environmentally sustain, it is important to understand the costs of resettling both refugees (people seeking refugee status abroad) and political asylum seekers (those applying for refugee status from within the United States).


According to a new study released by FAIR, the annual cost to U.S. taxpayers is $1.8 billion and over five years, that financial burden skyrockets to $8.8 billion.


Those figures are only estimates because refugees will access welfare and other government assistance at different rates and the number of refugees entering the U.S also changes from year-to-year.
Using the most recent admissions figures, data on federal and state public assistance programs, and information from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), our analysis found:

• The cost per refugee to American taxpayers just under $79,600 every year in the first five years after a refugee is resettled in the U.S.;
• In 2016, the State Department spent nearly $545 million to process and resettle refugees, including $140,389,177 on transportation costs;
• Of the $1.8 billion in resettlement costs, $867 billion was spent on welfare alone;
• In their first five years, approximately 54 percent of all refugees will hold jobs that pay less than $11 an hour;
• $71 million will be spent to educate refugees and asylum-seekers, a majority of which will be paid by state and local governments.
• Over five years, an estimated 15.7 percent of all refugees will need housing assistance, which is roughly $7,600 per household in 2014 dollars.

It is important to note that this analysis does not address the costs associated with any incurred national security and law enforcement costs associated with some refugees who pose a threat. The total price of additional vetting and screening expenditures, law enforcement and criminal justice costs, and federal homeland security assistance to state and local agencies is hard to quantify.


Introduction


At present, the United Nations estimates that there are approximately 65.3 million people who have been forcibly displaced from their homes by conflict or persecution. Many of those people will seek refuge in the developed countries of the West, including the United States.


America has a long tradition of providing refuge to the oppressed. We admit both refugees (people seeking refugee status abroad) and political asylees (people requesting refugee status from within the United States). And doing so is consistent with our history and our values. But the way in which we integrate refugees/political asylees into our society has changed drastically over the years.


The largest groups of refugees arrived in United States the aftermath of World War II. Significant numbers of anti-communist dissidents sought political asylum during the Cold War. However, the admission of WWII refugees, and Cold War asylees, took place in an overall context of very low immigration. And, until the 1980’s most refugee assistance was provided through private networks of charitable ethnic and religious groups that provided both financial assistance and help in assimilating to the American way of life. Many Americans contributed generously to those groups but their contributions were voluntary. Under the current model, taxpayers are involuntarily bankrolling the significant costs that resettling refugees and asylees imposes on the citizens of the United States.


Since 1980, the United States has admitted over 3.5 million people seeking refuge. We continue to admit refugees at a rate of roughly 50,000 to 100,000 refugees per year and 20,000-50,000 political asylees per year. Most of this cohort arrives here without financial resources and possessing few marketable job skills. And the American taxpayer is being asked to feed, clothe and shelter them, in addition to funding job training programs.


Most refugee/asylee resettlement expenditures come in the form of cash assistance, welfare programs and other social services. Federal welfare programs that refugees and asylees can access include the following:

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) formerly known as AFDC
• Medicaid
• Food Stamps
• Public Housing
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Social Security Disability Insurance
• Child Care and Development Fund
• Job Opportunities for Low Income Individuals (JOLI)
• Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
• Postsecondary Education Loans and Grants
• Refugee Assistance Programs
• Earned Income Tax Credit and Additional Child Tax Credit

State and local welfare programs that refugees and asylees can apply for include but are not limited to:

• Housing assistance
• English as a Second Language programs
• Special education programs
• Job training and employment search assistance
• Social services programs
• Immigration assistance programs (aiding asylees in filing green card applications, citizenship applications, and petitions for relatives to immigrate to the U.S.)

Eligibility for some of these programs expires seven years after an individual is admitted to the United States as a refugee or asylee. However, many welfare programs are available for as long as a refugee/asylee resides in the United States.


Additionally, the U.S. incurs significant expenses before refugees even get here: vetting applicants for refugee status, processing immigration applications and transporting approved applicants to the United States. Asylum seekers may cost taxpayers even more, considering they are present in the United States when they apply for protection. Because of this, they are entitled, as a matter of law, to a hearing on their asylum claim before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an additional hearing before the U.S. Immigration Court if the government intends to deny their claim, and an appeal to the Board of Immigration Appeals.


Funding all of these programs places a heavy burden on the public treasury. Below is FAIR’s estimate of the calculable cost, per refugee/asylee, for their first five years in the United States.


NB: Both refugees and political asylees are admitted to the United States based on the definition of refugee found at 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a). The major difference between the two statuses is that applicants for refugee status are abroad, applicants for political asylum are at the U.S. border or within the United States. Hereinafter, for the sake of convenience, FAIR uses the term “refugee” to refer to both traditional refugees and political asylees (unless otherwise specified).


Methodology


When calculating refugee costs, it is important to understand that the usage of various federal assistance and benefit programs is far from static. Welfare usage by refugees typically decreases the longer they reside in the country. However, even after five years, the rate at which refugees use public assistance programs is still much higher than the overall national average. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) releases up to five years’ worth data on the use of welfare programs by refugees in their annual report to Congress. To find a consistent annual rate, we calculate the average rate of usage based on the available data during that allotted five-year period.


In addition to varying welfare usage rates, the number of refugees entering the U.S also changes from year-to-year. We base our calculations on the most recent admissions data. As such, if the United States decides to increase the total number refugees it admits on an annual basis, these costs will increase. Unanticipated surges in the number of individuals admitted as refugees commonly occur in response to geopolitical events.

After determining how many refugees are likely to use a welfare benefit, we then multiply this number by the annual average benefit to find the mean yearly cost to U.S taxpayers. We conservatively estimate that amount of public assistance received by refugees each year is roughly equal to the overall national average.


In contrast to welfare expenses, the majority of specifically budgeted federal costs associated with refugees occurs during the initial resettlement phase. This includes costs such as transportation, processing, reception, placement, and programs designed to help entrants find employment and welfare benefits. For simplicity, we break these costs up and include them in the annual cost over five years.


Unless otherwise noted, we draw all statistics relating to the overall number of refugees utilizing specific welfare programs from ORR’s latest Annual Report to Congress, compiled at the end of fiscal year 2015. The total number of refugees and asylees is also derived from the ORR’s latest figures.


https://fairus.org/issue/legal-immig...-united-states

Trump promised to put them in Safe Zone on THEIR soil...now start setting a quota to get them ALL out of here!

We owe them nothing.

Sick of their wars and overbreeding...we are NOT their solution to their problems.

Put your damn weapons down, keep your pants zipped...quit fighting, raping, breeding and blowing stuff up!

GO HOME! GET TO WORK, CLEAN UP YOUR RUBBLE AND GET ON WITH YOUR LIVES AND GET ALONG WITH EACH OTHER.