|
Washington Update Mobile Coalition Pulls out Stops Sometimes we wonder what effect we as citizens can have on distant and obscure legislative processes in Washington, D.C., such as the appropriations bill for foreign operations which includes the refugee assistance and admissions programs. Well, a small group including dedicated resettlement workers and a Lutheran pastor in Mobile, Ala., may have managed to get nearly $22 million added to the program. And they're not finished yet! As FYI has reported, the refugee program is in danger. After a decline over the past seven years, the administration proposed a $658 million budget for the Migration and Refugee Assistance account (MRA) that would cut admissions by as many as 9,000 refugees. It would also cut overseas protection of African refugees by $14 million. Proposals in Congress are even worse. When representatives of the Refugee Council USA spoke last May with staffers for Rep. Sonny Callahan, R-Ala., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Foreign Operations (of which MRA is a part), he said he could offer no more than $623 million. Then we met with Catherine Wolfe and others from a Catholic resettlement office and Pastor Karnig Kasanjian of St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Mobile, who hosted a gathering of about 20 local constituents of Rep. Callahan. Pastor Kasanjian, a first-generation American from Armenia, moved the audience with the tale of his own family's persecution and flight. The story put a human face on the issue. We talked about the problem and drew up plans for action. The next thing you know, the Mobile Coalition for Refugees was up and running, using the local resettlement office as a mailing address. And that's when things began to turn around in Washington, D.C. At our next meeting with Callahan's office, after the first letters started coming in, his staffers changed their tune slightly to "not much more" than $623 million-a subtle but definite shift. Then a flood of about 300 letters poured into his office. The next thing we knew, Callahan was proposing $645 million for the refugee program! We're still far from the $700 million the program really needs to increase refugee admissions and protection assistance, but this is an important step in the right direction. And constituent pressure had a lot to do with it. It may seem hard to believe, but the budget process in Washington has little to do with objectively balancing compelling human needs. If it did, we wouldn't need to advocate for refugees. What it has more to do with is political will. Political will is a human artifact that we, as citizens and activists, either do or do not create. The refugees have no voice in the process. It is up to us to take their case to the American people-our neighbors, our coworkers, our fellow parishioners. When people learn what is being done to the refugee program and speak out to their representatives in Washington, then we will succeed in creating that political will. The budget process will likely drag out into the fall if the president and the Congress cannot come to an agreement. This is the opportunity for us to mobilize the grassroots constituency for refugees-let's do it! Similar meetings were held on July 5 and 6 in Louisville, Lexington and Bowling Green, Ky.
|
|
