Reception and Placement Abstracts: get them and use them!

[Idaho Kid]

These documents, prepared at the level of your local resettlement contractor with the help and guidance of one of the major nine federal contractors, are the blueprints for what is being planned for your town for the upcoming fiscal year.

Posted by Ann Corcoran on August 22, 2016
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/reception-and-placement-abstracts-get-them-and-use-them/

We've been talking about those pesky R & P Abstracts for more than a year now and some of you are starting to get-it and get them!

By 'get-it' I mean that these documents, prepared at the level of your local resettlement contractor with the help and guidance of one of the major nine federal contractors, are the blueprints for what is being planned for your town for the upcoming fiscal year.

Update: I've been talking about all of this for so long I forget that new people don't know how to find a contractor near them.  Go here and find an office near you (any of the agencies within a hundred miles of you could be bringing refugees to your town).  Call or write to the office and ask for a copy of the FY2017 R & P Abstract.

Fiscal year 2017 begins October 1, 2016.

Speaker Paul Ryan and other Catholics of Wisconsin must have run out of poor Americans to take care of as they pour the third world into Milwaukee. His hometown of Janesville doesn't get any refugees yet, maybe it's time some are sent there?

It is my contention that the public is entitled to this document in advance because you have a right to know what Washington has planned for your town (especially because you are paying for this!)

You should be told about this plan before it even goes to Washington where it becomes the basis for the President's 'determination' in September when he sends his wishlist for how many refugees Congress must fund for the upcoming year.   For eight of the last nine years that I've been following the program, Congress says NOT a word and just takes the Presidential determination with a 'yes master, anything you say, master' attitude.

Last year there was a little push-back, but ultimately Congress (Speaker Paul Ryan!) agreed to pay for the increased number of new refugees (from the average of about 70,000 to 85,000 for FY16) to accommodate the Syrian influx.

So here we go again. Obama has one more shot at changing America by changing the people. The minimum number we can expect Obama to propose is 100,000.

Before I get to what an Abstract looks like and what you should do with it when you get it, I want to say that not only should communities have this document and see it published in a local newspaper, but it should be discussed in the community before it is finalized.  I recommend that every 'welcoming' community hold a public hearing at the mayor/council level to discuss the numbers being proposed and the amenities the town is offering the refugees.

[Note to long time readers, we have done this exercise before, see especially here when I obtained the R & P Abstract for a new resettlement site—Reno, NV. Perhaps re-read that post now. And, I encourage your local research teams to read through the 'Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2016, report to Congress' by clicking here as part of their investigative work.]

Why do I know that the R & P Abstracts are important for you to obtain?  Because the contractors do not want you to see them! In fact one of the nine contractors (maybe all of them!) sent a message to their subcontractors this past year specifically instructing their offices to NOT give them out to anyone who calls.  So what are they hiding?

Despite attempts to keep them from public view, some of you are successfully obtaining your local Abstracts and a few are actually receiving the plan for FY2017 and not the older ones.  Of course in many of these cases it has taken a Freedom of Information Act request, but at least you have them.  A few of the ones I have seen are not complete based on the 16 pages of the document for Reno, NV which includes VERY useful and informative letters of support from various entities and agencies including the local Islamic Center....

So what do you do with your local R & P Abstract once you get it?

You must make the document public!

You are going to have to figure out how to do that where you live.  Go before your local government (when the media is there) and ask if your elected officials had any role in its preparation. Tell them to hold a public meeting to discuss it.

Make sure all those in your local group with similar concerns are given a copy.

If you are doing a power point presentation in your state, be sure to put the pages on the power point.

Take it to your Member of Congress and US Senators and tell them you disapprove of the numbers and that you don't want them to vote to fund it.

Demand to know exactly which ethnic groups are coming to your town.  And, are they screened for communicable diseases?

I feel like I am beating a dead horse with this next one.....

If you can't get to the media (those local papers have been captured!), you will have to write a blog or website so all of the information you gather is made public by your own alternative media.  Facebook pages are not as good because I don't think you can catalog information for future reference.

It is pretty late in the cycle to make a huge impact this year with the Abstracts except to pressure Congress in to not funding Obama's planned expansion of the program.

Next year? What do we do? Who knows.....It all depends on November!

more at https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2016/08/22/reception-and-placement-abstracts-get-them-and-use-them/