Dozens of refugee resettlement offices to close as Trump downsizes program

February 14, 2018  14H:36  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Suzanne Gould and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, New York

NEW YORK  - 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 us at Reuters.

FILE PHOTO: Protesters gather outside the Trump Building at 40 Wall St. to take action against America’s refugee ban in New York City, U.S., March 28, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo

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 to 45,000 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.

(For a graphic on the closures: tmsnrt.rs/2BpD8UZ)

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 Harris said 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 turn off 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.

State Department tells refugee agencies to downsize U.S. operations

DECEMBER 22, 2017 /  18H:20  GMT/UTC/ZULU TIME

by Melissa Gruz and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and Reuters, Washington DC

The U.S. State Department has told refugee agencies it will sharply pare back the number of offices across the country authorized to resettle people in 2018 as President Donald Trump cuts the number of refugees allowed into the United States.

The announcement was made at a Dec. 1 meeting in Washington with State Department officials and representatives from nine major refugee agencies, several executives of the agencies said.

SPONSORED

Advocates said the decision is likely to lead to the closure of dozens of resettlement offices around the country, potentially leaving some refugees without access to services that help them integrate into American life. Several state refugee coordinators said they had also been made aware of the closures.

    Refugee resettlement in the United States is handled by nine non-profit agencies that receive funding from the federal government for some of their refugee work. They partner with, or oversee, hundreds of local offices in nearly every state that help new arrivals with basic tasks like enrolling children in school, arranging doctors’ visits and applying for Social Security cards and other documents.

Though the agencies are independent, they must get government approval for where they will resettle new refugees.

Aid workers and state officials involved in refugee resettlement said the agencies were informed by the State Department in the Dec. 1 meeting that offices expected to handle fewer than 100 refugees in fiscal year 2018 will no longer be authorized to resettle new arrivals, which means many of them will have to close. There are about 300 resettlement offices spread across 49 states, and advocates estimate several dozen are at risk, though shuttering plans will not be finalized until next year.

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

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Refugee advocates say the closure of local offices will undermine that goal. They say the offices play a crucial role in helping newcomers traumatized from having fled conflict or persecution. Even if no new refugees are resettled by the offices they still have an obligation to help those already here, they say.

If refugees lose access to “services to help them navigate the processes of registering for school, and English classes and finding a job, that will mean that it will take longer for them to navigate life in the United States and contribute to our economy,” said Robert Carey, who directed the Office of Refugee Resettlement under former President Barack Obama.

A State Department official confirmed the Dec. 1 meeting and said the agency is looking to “reduce costs and simplify management structures to help the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program run in a way that is fiscally responsible and sustainable.”

Some conservative groups that favor lower immigration said they would welcome curbs on the agencies’ activities.

FILE PHOTO: Retired engineer John Wider, 59, is greeted by a supporter of U.S. President Donald Trump as he holds up a sign reading "Welcome Refugees" at the international arrivals terminal at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, California, U.S. on June 29, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake/File Photo

“These organizations have to adapt when their services are no longer needed as much,” said Jessica Vaughan, director of policy studies at the Center for Immigration Studies. “There is no reason to keep funneling money to them.”

Joshua Meservey, a senior policy analyst at the conservative Heritage Foundation who formerly worked in refugee resettlement, said that costs need to be balanced against benefits. “It is unclear to me if the assimilation gains are great enough to justify the extra expense” of funding the smaller agencies, he said.

‘WE‘VE LOST A REALLY VALUABLE PARTNER’

The nine agencies are now trying to coordinate closures so that they can maintain at least one resettlement agency in as many states as possible, several agency executives said.

“We’re hoping that they (the State Department) only close sites where there is possible duplication,” said Mark Hetfield, president of HIAS, one of the nine agencies. “This is going to have to be a negotiation and a process.”

Since taking office in January, Trump has moved to sharply reduce refugee admissions to the United States, because of national security concerns and a belief that money could be better spent resettling people closer to their original homes.

Soon after taking office, he slashed the 2017 U.S. refugee cap to 50,000 from the 110,000 ceiling set by Obama. In September, he announced a cap of 45,000 for 2018, the lowest number since the modern U.S. refugee program was established in 1980.

The resettlement office in Chattanooga, Tennessee is at risk of shutting down, because it is only projected to receive about 85 refugees, said Holly Johnson, the state’s refugee coordinator.

“Small doesn’t necessarily mean weak or subpar,” Johnson said. “They spend more time with folks, they have really well-established connections to the community, so people feel welcomed, which really helps.”

Until this year, Idaho had four resettlement offices - three in Boise and one in Twin Falls, said Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, a non-profit which administers resettlement in the state. Earlier this year one of the sites in Boise shut down, he said.

“It was disruptive, and we’ve lost a really valuable partner and we’ve lost some capacity to do the job,” he said.