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U.S. State Dept. Answers Questions About Refugees In Bloomington

Exodus Refugee Immigration

Bloomington residents can expect refugees to arrive by the end of this year. The city is one of about 40 communities in the country that the U.S. State Department recently approved as a refugee resettlement site.

The State Department approved a request from Exodus Refugee Immigration last week to make Bloomington a refugee resettlement site.

Exodus already works to resettle refugees in Indianapolis, but more sites are needed since President Obama announced earlier this year he wants to increase the number of refugees coming in to the U.S.

Mark Storella is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration. He recently answered our questions about Bloomington becoming a new resettlement site.

This conversation has been edited for clarity.Â

Becca Costello: How will the recent court decision to rule against Mike Pence in his efforts to keep Syrian refugees out of Indiana impact the State Department's decision to make Bloomington a refugee resettlement site?

Mark Storella: I don't want to comment on the court ruling itself because I actually don't know the full implications of it. But I do want to say that we're facing a global refugee crisis as I think everyone recognizes. And among the refugees the biggest group of new refugees have been Syrians, and you see every night the terrible depredations that those folks are going through. So it's been an important step for the United States, I think in terms of leadership in the world community to show that we are prepared to help Syrian refugees.

"One of the things I hope the American people understand is that the first thing we do is we try to help them where they are."


And one of the things I hope the American people understand is that the first thing we do is we try to help them where they are. We've provided $5.9 billion in assistance to Syrians in and around Syria on a humanitarian basis to try to support them. Actually only a very tiny fraction of Syrian refugees ever have the opportunity to resettle overseas and of those, a small number come to the United States. Last year was 12,587.

Costello: How many other sites in the United States were recently approved as resettlement sites?

Storella: About 50 new sites proposed themselves to be approved for resettlement of refugees. And we go through a process with each one of the sites where we work with local community leaders and with resettlement agencies there to determine if they have the things that are necessary to do a good job in accepting refugees. And of the roughly 50 that proposed themselves this year, I think we'll probably end up accepting about 40.

Costello: When will refugees begin arriving in Bloomington?

Storella: I can't tell you exactly when refugees will begin to arrive there, I'm afraid that we really have to look at a lot of the details. With a new site though, usually you don't start right away because you have to work through a number of things to make sure folks are ready to arrange things like housing and schooling and that sort of thing. But this will all start this year, so within this fiscal year which started [Oct. 1], refugees should begin to arrive in Bloomington.

Costello: Is there a process to determine whether Bloomington will receive families or individuals or a combination?

Storella: The way that we decide which refugees will go where is really through a process of dialogue with the resettlement agencies and with the local community organizations and volunteers who are supporting them. So we look for a fit that makes sense for the community, and frequently that is starting out with families if there's good schooling. But at this stage I can't tell you precisely, but I do want to say very strongly that we will be trying to select refugees that we think have the very best chance of fitting well into the community and being able to be self sufficient as soon as possible in the community.

Costello: We've been told that Bloomington will most likely receive refugees from Syrian or the Democratic Republic of the Congo. How is that decision determined?

Storella: I don't think that decision is made to exclude Bloomington receiving refugees from some place that you'd really like to receive refugees from, but we have to place refugees based on the populations that are coming to the United States from around the world. And it turns out that of all the countries in the world, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has the most refugees coming to the United States. Syria is second, Burma is third, Iraq is fourth. And they actually make up a large percentage of the refugees, even though there are refugees coming to the United States from 79 countries all over the world. So I think that it's normal for the first placements to come from one of the countries that has large populations of refugees coming to the United States.

Costello:Â The search for new settlement sites is a result of President Obama's desire to bring more refugees to the United States, correct?

Storella: Let me start by saying the new resettlement sites are really at the initiative of local organizations - which I'm really proud of. I think it's wonderful that people around the United States have seen the plight of refugees and volunteered, stepping forward to propose themselves as resettlement sites.

"The new resettlement sites are really at the initiative of local organizations, which I'm really proud of."


In terms of next year, President Obama has proposed to Congress that we would resettle up to 110,000 refugees in the United States next year, that's the ceiling. This year we settled 84,995 refugees in the United States in one year, which is the most we've resettled in about 15 years, although we resettled more in the 1990s and the 1980s on a year-on-year basis.

Costello: And then looking at fiscal year 2018, any idea about whether the United States will raise that ceiling again?

Storella: I cannot predict right now. That decision about how many refugees the president would propose be resettled in the United States in 2018 will of course depend on whoever the new president is, but also on the circumstances we're facing in the world.

But one thing I would say is really important is the United States wants to demonstrate leadership on this big humanitarian problem the world is facing. So I think that it's a wonderful thing that so many local communities, including Bloomington, have stepped forward to help share that burden with the rest of the world of supporting people who are really vulnerable and have suffered terrible persecution.

Costello: What can you tell us about the screening process that refugees go through before being accepted for resettlement in the United States?

Storella: The first thing I want to really emphasize is that refugees are the most thoroughly screened of any travelers of any kind coming to the United States. Refugees first are put in touch with us by UNHCR. Then the Department of Homeland Security oversees a security vetting process which includes vetting by the FBI, the National Counter-Terrorism Center, various intelligence organizations, the Department of State, the Department of Defense and a number of other organizations.

"Refugees are the most thoroughly screened of any travelers of any kind coming to the United States."


For refugees coming from some of the most sensitive countries, such as Syria, there's actually even an additional level of review that they go under.

But one of the most important things is that the Department of Homeland Security, through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration service, conducts interviews overseas before anyone ever comes to the United States. And these interviews go on for hours, they check out every aspect of the person's story, and then they go through the interview again. I've gone through some of these interviews, they're very, very detailed.

So what I would like to assure the people of Bloomington and Americans in general is that we take the security of the United States and the American people as our highest priority. But with that objective in mind, we go through what is now really an unprecedented level of screening of refugees before they ever come to the United States.

Costello: Anything else you want to add?

Storella: I first started working with refugees in 1982 when I was a student and my university had a program to help Southeast Asian refugees coming to the United States. And so I, and then my brother and other members of my family, started working with Vietnamese refugees, Vietnamese refugee families. It was a wonderful experience for us.

And one of the things that I think we see very quickly with refugees is they are so grateful about the generosity that they see in the American people, they become very dedicated to the United States. You see a lot of refugees who end up themselves or their children joining the American Armed Forces or law enforcement organizations.

And refugees can be a wonderful thing for cities, both in terms of helping the economy locally, and really enriching the life of all the citizens in the local communities.

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