Return-Path: <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g1I3Zvu02351; Sun, 17 Feb 2002 22:35:57 -0500 (EST)
Date: Sun, 17 Feb 2002 22:35:57 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <B895D3C7.692%azbecker@mindspring.com>
Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov
Reply-To: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Originator: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Sender: nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov
Precedence: bulk
From: Aliza Becker <azbecker@mindspring.com>
To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-esl@literacy.nifl.gov>
Subject: [NIFL-ESL:7237] FW: Immigration Policy Update
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
Content-transfer-encoding: 7bit
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Status: O
Content-Length: 12973
Lines: 262
------ Forwarded Message
From: "Belanger, Maurice" <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Date: Fri, 15 Feb 2002 18:48:37 -0500
To: "Belanger, Maurice" <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Subject: Immigration Policy Update
National Immigration Forum
Date: February 15, 2001
To: Forum Associates and interested advocates
From: Lynn Tramonte, Maurice Belanger
Re: Immigration Policy Update
----------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
1. Senate Subcommittee Focuses on Refugee Resettlement Crisis
2. Food Stamp Restoration Amendment Passes on Senate Farm Bill
3. GAO Highlights Problems in INS Detection of Immigration
Benefits Fraud
4. Annual Poverty Guidelines Released
5. Federal Register Items
----------------------------------------------------
--------------------
REFUGEE RESETTLEMENT - Senate Holds Hearing on Refugee Resettlement Crisis
--------------------
On February 12, 2002, the Senate Immigration Subcommittee held a hearing
entitled "Empty Seats in a Lifeboat: Are There Problems with the U.S.
Refugee Program?" The State Department and Immigration and Naturalization
Service, along with experts from leading refugee resettlement agencies,
testified about problems with the U.S. refugee admissions program since
September 11th that have slowed resettlement in this country to a veritable
trickle. These officials outlined steps that can be taken to ensure that we
reach the refugee admissions ceiling of 70,000 in FY 2002, and that the U.S.
remains committed to providing a safe haven for some of the world's most
vulnerable people.
Chair of the Immigration Subcommittee, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA), opened
the hearing by stating that U.S. refugee admissions are not keeping pace
with the growing need for this type of humanitarian assistance. Over the
last decade the U.S. has accepted fewer and fewer refugees, from a high of
200,000 per year in the 1980s. He believes that with rigorous screening
procedures in place and with security of our overseas personnel a top
priority, we should be able to quickly move back to our pledged commitment
of resettling 70,000 refugees this fiscal year, and then on to making a
larger commitment in the years to come.
Like Senator Kennedy, Ranking Minority Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS)
expressed consternation at the steady decline in refugee admissions over the
last decade. He said that refugee admissions ceilings are not about numbers
but about people, and that if we can take in even one more refugee it would
make all the difference in the world to that one person. Resettling
refugees goes to the very core of what "compassionate conservatism" is all
about, according to Senator Brownback: doing what is just and right for
people who deserve our country's protection.
Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) spoke of his state's leadership as a
destination for resettled refugees since the 1970s. He concurred with a
recent statement made by INS Commissioner Ziglar that we cannot judge
immigrants by the actions of terrorists. However, Senator Grassley said
that we cannot deny the fact that abuses of the system are possible, and
that there is still room for improvement in our nation's border management
controls. Still, he said that he remains committed to policies that welcome
refugees, and that he was pleased to continue welcoming refugees to his
state.
Arthur "Gene" Dewey, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of
Population, Refugees, and Migration at the State Department, expressed
guarded optimism that the U.S. will meet its goal of resettling 70,000
refugees this year, but suggested that it might "take a miracle" and would
require a firm commitment of resources to get as close to the ceiling as
possible.
INS Commissioner James Ziglar renewed his pledge made earlier this month to
meet the refugee processing quota set for this fiscal year, despite the
present setbacks. He said the INS is committed to making a "better than
good faith effort" to help 70,000 refugees enter the U.S. this fiscal year,
and will take the following steps to reach that goal:
** Increase the number of INS field personnel who are cross-trained in
refugee interviewing and deploy sixty of these "detailees" to the field
starting in mid-March;
** Re-open more safe refugee interviewing facilities for INS personnel
abroad;
** Expand the pool of possible refugees chosen for U.S. resettlement by
going beyond UNHCR recommendations and those who affirmatively walk into
State Department offices abroad;
** Work with the resettlement agencies to identify vulnerable
populations of special concern; and
** Expand the number of ports of entry through which refugees may enter
this country.
The second panel was comprised of representatives from some of the nation's
leading refugee resettlement and advocacy agencies. Lenny Glickman,
Chairman of Refugee Council USA; Anastasia Brown, Assistant Director for
Processing Operations at Migration and Refugee Services, U.S. Conference of
Catholic Bishops; and Bill Frelick, Director of Policy with the U.S.
Committee for Refugees all spoke eloquently and with experience about the
U.S. refugee resettlement program, its challenges and needs.
Witness testimony and some member statements can be found on-line at:
http://www.senate.gov/~judiciary/hr021202si.htm
---------------
PUBLIC BENEFITS - Gramm Complicates Senate Restoration of Food Stamps for
LPRs
---------------
On February 12, the Senate passed the "Agriculture, Conservation, and Rural
Enhancement Act of 2001" (the Farm Bill) that includes authorization to
spend $8.9 billion in nutrition programs over 10 years. The bill includes
an amendment to restore food stamps to legal immigrants who have resided in
the U.S. for at least five years. The amendment was offered by Senators
Durbin (D-IL) and Lugar (R-IN). The positive news, however, was clouded
when Senator Phil Gramm (R-TX) pressured the amendment's sponsors to accept
a modification to their amendment that would disqualify legal immigrants if
they had been, at any time in the past, out of status for a year or more.
This new stipulation would mean that food stamp administrators would somehow
have to ascertain the past immigration status of immigrants applying for
food stamps.
The House passed its Farm Bill in October. The House version authorizes
nutrition spending of only $3.6 billion over 10 years. It includes no Food
Stamp restoration for legal immigrants. The differences in the two versions
will be worked out by a House and Senate Conference Committee soon. For
immigrant advocates, the challenge will be to hold to the Senate's higher
overall authorization for nutrition programs, and to the Senate's
restoration of Food Stamps for legal immigrants, but without the Gramm
language to bar anyone who had in the past been undocumented.
For more information, go to the website of the Food Research Action Center
at: http://www.frac.org/.
---
INS - GAO Says INS Fraud Detection is Unfocused
---
On February 15, the U.S. General Accounting Office released a report,
"Immigration Benefit Fraud: Focused Approach is Needed to Address Problems."
The report may gain some attention because included in it the GAO reports on
conversations with INS fraud investigators who state that they believe that
immigration benefit fraud is "rampant." (Since their focus is fraud, it is
not surprising that fraud investigators would believe that fraud is a
serious problem.) The GAO did not do an audit of immigration benefits
adjudications for this report, and the dramatic language in the report is
based on the conjecture of fraud investigators in the INS. (One official in
Miami asserted that it was "out of control.")
The bulk of GAO's discussion in the summary of the report focuses on the
systems the INS has in place to detect fraud, to track its own
investigations of fraud, the prioritization of fraud investigations, and the
focus on goals the INS has set for investigating fraud.
The report notes that the INS does not have a plan to "identify how
components within and among the service centers and district offices are to
coordinate" fraud investigations. In addition, There is no working-level
guidance for opening and prioritizing fraud investigations. As a result,
significant resources are focused on cases that yield minor prosecutions.
For example, even though the INS's goal is to focus on large-scale fraud
cases, in Fiscal Years 1998 through 2000, 55 percent of benefits fraud
investigative resources were directed to individual cases, while only 15
percent were directed to investigate fraud by criminal organizations.
Finally, information about incidents of fraud are not shared in a timely
way, and adjudicators in one service center may not be alerted to a scheme
discovered in another service center until a centralized information system
is updated once a month.
The GAO made a number of recommendations regarding strategy and
coordination, tracking of investigations, information-sharing among service
centers, and developing outcome-based performance measures to gauge the
success of investigations.
The report can be found on the GAO website at:
http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0266.pdf (Portable Document Format).
FROM THE FEDERAL REGISTER
Updated Poverty Guidelines Published
On February 14, the Department of Health and Human Services published its
annual update of the federal poverty guidelines. Benefits agencies use the
poverty guidelines to determine eligibility for benefits. Programs that use
the guidelines (or percentage multiples of the guidelines - for instance,
125 percent or 185 percent of the guidelines) include Head Start, the Food
Stamp Program, the National School Lunch Program, the Low-Income Home Energy
Assistance Program, and the Children's Health Insurance Program. In
general, cash public assistance programs (TANF and SSI) do not use the
poverty guidelines in determining eligibility. (For more on the poverty
guidelines, see the information posted on the Department of Health and Human
Services website at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/02poverty.htm)
The new poverty guidelines are as follows:
2002 Poverty Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and the District of
Columbia
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Poverty
Size of family unit guideline
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.......................................................... $8,860
2.......................................................... 11,940
3.......................................................... 15,020
4.......................................................... 18,100
5.......................................................... 21,180
6.......................................................... 24,260
7.......................................................... 27,340
8.......................................................... 30,420
------------------------------------------------------------------------
For family units with more than 8 members, add $3,080 for each
additional member.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&doci
d=02-3627-filed
Legal Assistance to Non-citizens. On February 13, the Legal Services
Corporation published a notice announcing a meeting of its Negotiated
Rulemaking Working Group that is considering a revision to LSC's regulations
regarding restriction on legal assistance to non-citizens. The Working
Group will meet March 4-5 in Arlington, VA, and is open to the public.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&doci
d=02-3395-filed
Student Financial Assistance. On February 13, the Department of Education
Published a notice seeking comment on it currently used form "Student
Assistance General Provisions--Subpart1--Immigration Status Confirmation."
The form is used to prevent ineligible aliens from receiving
federally-subsidized student financial assistance. Comments are due by
March 15.
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2002_register&doci
d=02-3452-filed
*****************************************************
* If you would like to stop receiving e-mail **
* updates from the National Immigration Forum, **
* send a message to mbelanger@immigrationforum.org **
* and ask to be removed from the list. It's **
* easier to find you on the list if you identify **
* yourself when making any request. -mb **
=====================================================
Maurice Belanger
Senior Policy Associate
National Immigration Forum
mbelanger@immigrationforum.org
http://www.immigrationforum.org
------ End of Forwarded Message
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Fri Jan 17 2003 - 14:44:04 EST