General
Testimony of Anastasia Brown on Immigration (2012)
Testimony of Anastasia K. Brown on behalf of Migration and Refugee Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops on FY 2013 U.S. Refugee Program Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration at the U.S. Department of State, May 1, 2012
"I am Anastasia Brown, Director of Resettlement Services of Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (MRS/USCCB). I am pleased to be here today to speak with the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) of the U.S. State Department (DOS) regarding the issue of refugee protection. I would like to speak today to several vulnerable populations, including refugees throughout East Africa, especially unaccompanied minors, Colombians in Central and South America, Chin Burmese in India, the Rohingya Burmese in Bangladesh, and Somalis in Kenya. Although I highlight specific populations, they do not represent the totality of our concerns. As a member of Refugee Council USA, we support the recommendations made in that organization’s testimony for today’s meeting.
As the administration works to resolve the bureaucratic impediments in the refugee clearance process, PRM should proactively seek to identify and resettle refugee caseloads that are not delayed due to security clearances. According to PRM, “The Administration has worked closely with the Congress to invest the resources necessary to reach smaller numbers of the most desperate populations who find themselves in seemingly forgotten locations.” We would like to see this statement to translate into more arrivals of these individuals into the United States."