This is a Call for Action issued from the TESOL Refugee Concerns group. In case you would like to participate, here is the call: Please share this critically important message with your networks, and call your Congress members THIS WEEK to prevent a humanitarian disaster. On June 20th, which coincidentally was World Refugee Day, the Office of Refugee Resettlement sent a reprogramming notice to Congress to take $94 million from refugee accounts to use instead for the ongoing humanitarian crisis of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) crossing our southern border in record high numbers. Numbers of children, and families, crossing the border from Central American countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras have reached an unprecedented level. Children of all ages, including infants, are fleeing gang violence and poverty to reunite with family in the United States, risking their lives to travel the long distance through Mexico alone. While in FFY 2011 there were 7,000 UACs, this year in FFY 14 the number is expected to top 70,000. The Homeland Security Act of 2002, Section 462, transferred responsibilities for the care and placement of UACs from the Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to the Director of ORR. UACs apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) immigration officials are transferred to the care and custody of ORR. By law, ORR must provide for the custody and care of UACs. The average length of stay in the program is near 35 days. Of the children served, some 85% are reunified with their families in the US. The majority of the youth are cared for through a network of state-licensed ORR-funded care providers that provide: classroom education; mental and medical health services; case management; socialization and recreation; and family reunification services. While the Homeland Security Act of 2002 placed responsibility for the care of UACs with ORR, there was no separate budget line created to care for these children. Therefore, when the numbers of UACs and the funding needed to serve them increase, ORR has no choice but to redirect funds from refugee resettlement to the UAC humanitarian crisis. ORRs parent agencies, the Administration of Children and Families and the Department of Health and Human Services, have exhausted their options under the law to redirect funding to the UAC crisis, and the reprogramming is next step to supporting UACs. Unfortunately, with no action from Congress, the reprogramming would occur automatically 15 days (on July 5) from the date of the notice to Congress and would have sharp and deep reductions to resettlement funding. The drastic cuts would affect the quality of service the refugee resettlement network could provide to refugees, including those already here in the State as well as the ones slated to arrive. The cuts would impact refugees, refugee communities, and refugee-focused programming and agencies, as well as mainstream partners such as: school districts, employers, workforce development centers, service-oriented nonprofits, and housing agencies. In addition, with global numbers of refugees reaching their historic high numbers as well due to crises in Syria and other countries, all States, including Colorado, would have to revisit the numbers of refugees that they feel like they could accept successfully, adding to the global refugee challenges. HERE IS A SUGGESTED TEXT: I am calling to ask that the finance committees of the House and Senate choose to implement an emergency supplemental funding of $200 million to care for the unaccompanied alien children (UACs) in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody. An additional ask is that Congress split the budget lines set aside for refugee and UAC populations, so that refugee funding is not diminished in the face of the increasing UAC crisis. MORE INFO ABOUT UACs CAN BE FOUND HERE: americanprogress.org/issues/immigration/news/2014/06/18/92056/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-unaccompanied-minors-crisis/
Posted on: Wed, 25 Jun 2014 12:59:54 +0000
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