From the President’s Desk
The Tide is Turning (But There Are Still Empty Seats on the Lifeboat!)
By Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS President

The advocacy campaign to rescue the U.S. refugee resettlement program is beginning to bear fruit. The commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has affirmed the commitment of the Bush administration and of his agency to the 70,000 admissions level for this fiscal year. The undersecretary of state for global affairs and the assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration have given their department's pledge to use best efforts to reach this goal. In oversight hearings, the members of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration have forcefully reaffirmed their commitment to using every single resettlement place.

The first major breakthrough came on February 1 when INS Commissioner James Ziglar addressed the National Immigration Forum, stating that the INS has designed a "realistic plan" to address the issue of the shortfall in this fiscal year's 70,000 admissions level. "Among other things," he said, "it includes detailing a significant number of INS personnel to conduct refugee interviews worldwide with a goal of meeting 70,000 admissions this year." Through this announcement, Commissioner Ziglar pledged that the INS would do its part and in effect tossed the ball into the State Department's court.

The next development came February 6 when newly confirmed Assistant Secretary of State Arthur E. "Gene" Dewey held his first meeting with Refugee Council USA (RCUSA) member agencies. Gone was the State Department message from January that they were giving up on the 70,000 and planning on 45,000 to 50,000. Instead, he welcomed Commissioner Ziglar's announcement and said that the government will use "best efforts" toward reaching the 70,000 number (although, he said, it may take some miracles to do so). If we fall short, he committed, it will not be for lack of best efforts. This message was reaffirmed in a meeting February 11 with Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky.

The third major development was the Senate Immigration Subcommittee hearing on February 12, entitled "Empty Seats in a Lifeboat: Are There Problems with the U.S. Refugee Program?" Sens. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and Sam Brownback, R-Kan., made forceful statements of support for the resettlement program. Large charts beside the dais illustrated "Chronic Shortfalls in Refugee Admissions," more than 100,000 unused resettlement places over the past decade. Sen. Brownback quoted the prophet Jeremiah's exhortation to deliver from the oppressor and care for the widow and the orphan, saying that the refugee program is a way our nation does that. Assistant Secretary Dewey and Commissioner Ziglar testified for the administration, each reaffirming the commitment to strive for the 70,000 admissions level. Three witnesses from RCUSA member agencies testified about the shortcomings in the current system and what could be done to make it work. In concluding statements Sen. Kennedy said that no one could listen to these recommendations and not believe that we could make the 70,000 numbers this year. Sen. Brownback went further and asked how we could be happy with 70,000—only half of the level our country had 10 years ago.

The advocacy and political pressure are beginning to bear fruit, but we are not there yet. The administration's key actors on resettlement—the State Department, the INS and the National Security Council—are all now rallying publicly around the 70,000 number. We need to keep up the pressure to ensure that indeed all best efforts are used; that the administration is held accountable to identify, process and admit that many refugees. We need to advocate for a far larger figure for the State Department's Migration and Refugee Assistance (MRA) account—$841 million, the FY1995 level adjusted for inflation, instead of the $705 million in the administration's fiscal year 2003 budget. That amount will provide adequate resources both for overseas assistance and for resettlement, ensuring that the needs of one desperate group of refugees is not pitted against the needs of another equally desperate group.

From the
President’s Desk

More Indirect Victims of September 11—
Haitian Asylum Seekers in Detention
By Ralston Deffenbaugh, LIRS President
The indirect consequences of the horrific attacks of September 11 have been surprising, manifold and unpredictable. Here's another: some 200 Haitian asylum seekers who have passed their "credible fear" determination—i.e., they have shown that they likely have a good case for asylum—are still being held in INS detention at the Krome facility near Miami. Before September 11, persons showing credible fear in the INS's Miami District were released pending final adjudication of their claim. Now these Haitians are being held. Why? The INS won't say. Is Haiti on the list of terrorist source countries? Is detention being used as a deterrent against other asylum seekers? We don't know. What we do know is that innocent people who are fleeing persecution are being locked up in our country, the land of liberty.

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