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Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration

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Overview:
The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) in the US Department of State is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad. It oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. PRM has been criticized for not helping more Iraqis enter the US during the ongoing violence in Iraq, and its onetime leader was accused of being unqualified to run the bureau.
 
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History:

The US State Department established the Bureau of Refugee Programs in 1980 following one of the most controversial refugee periods in American history. As a result of the US war in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of people from South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia fled their home countries, many in makeshift flotillas that produced dramatic news coverage in the US. Obliged to help these displaced Southeast Asians, the US took in large groups of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians and settled them in states such as California (San Jose and Orange County), Minnesota and Texas.
 
The newly established Bureau of Refugees was forced to deal with other episodes of international political instability in the 1980s that caused smaller waves of refugees into the US. Some of the more prominent cases were in Central America as a result of US foreign policy aims in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The latter involved American support for the Contra rebels in an effort to destabilize the Sandinista government, creating havoc not only in Nicaragua but neighboring countries as well. Globally, the number of refugees increased from roughly eight million in 1980 to nearly 18 million in 1992.
 
The end of the Cold War ushered in a period of intrastate tensions and conflicts in the former republics of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia states of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. These political hot spots produced a sharp increase in the number of refugees. In the last decade, there have been dramatic increases in the numbers of “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) - domestic refugees inside countries who never travel across borders. Current estimates place the number of internally displaced persons between 25 and 30 million, which is twice the number of refugees around the world.
 
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government retracted immigration and refugee opportunities out of fear of allowing more terrorists to slip into the country. This produced record lows in refugee totals. But since 2005, the number of refugees admitted to the US has rebounded significantly, according to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (PDF).
 
more
What it Does:

Located within the State Department, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad, and it oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Health and Human Services and various state and private voluntary agencies. In FY 2007, 48,281 refugees were admitted to the US.
 
PRM takes the lead for the State Department in matters related to international population policy, working closely with the Bureau for International Organizations, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other federal agencies. The bureau works to increase national and international awareness of population issues and integrate these issues into broader economic growth and development strategies. PRM also monitors demographic trends of refugees and integrates them into the policy process. PRM represents the US on the governing bodies of international and multilateral organizations, such as the UN Population Fund and the UN Commission on Population and Development. PRM does not manage population program funds; this is done by USAID. Most US population assistance is provided through the USAID Child Survival and Health Account.
 
PRM leads the State Department’s efforts to bolster UN agencies and NGOs responding to humanitarian needs of refugees in Iraq. USAID programs support thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Iraq and other at-risk people through activities such as emergency relief supplies and support for mobile medical teams and emergency health. Almost $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for displaced Iraqis in Iraq and neighboring states has been given by the U.S. government since 2003.
 
The Iraq war has produced one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the world, with more than one and a half million Iraqis displaced from their homes. But the United States has been slow to take in Iraqi refugees (see Controversies) because of tougher security screenings. Also, as part of its FY 2009 budget request for Migration and Refugee Assistance, PRM excluded funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, telling Congress the Bush administration preferred to “continue to review humanitarian assistance needs” in those regions and request supplemental funding at a later time, if necessary.
 
Refugee Assistance
PRM financial support for refugees is distributed throughout the world, with the Near East ($290 million) and Africa ($288 million) the largest beneficiaries, according to the bureau’s latest budget report (PDF) to Congress. For example, aid to Africa went to help refugees caught in the political crisis happening in Darfur (Sudan-Chad), Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Zimbabwe. Key countries outside Africa receiving aid are Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, North Korea, the West Bank/Gaza, Nepal, Colombia, the Balkans and North Caucasus.
 
According to the Federal Grants Wire, PRM maintains seven geographically-based assistance programs:
 
Facts, reports and briefings regarding refugee assistance are available on the PRM web site, along with information on how non-governmental organizations can apply for financial support for overseas operations that aid refugees.

 

more
Where Does the Money Go:

The majority of PRM-managed funds (87%) are given to international organizations. The rest goes to NGOs. The primary recipients of PRM’s largess are:
  • Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  • International Red Cross
  • UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
  • International Organization for Migration
  • UN Children’s Fund
  • UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
  • World Food Program
  • UN Development Program
  • Red Crescent
 

In FY 2007 PRM distributed refugee assistance funds to 48 NGO’s. The top six recipients were the International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, American Refugee Committee, Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Catholic Relief Services and the International Catholic Migration Commission.

 

more
Controversies:

US Slow to Take Iraqi Refugees
US officials and refugee experts have declared Iraq one of the worst refugee crises in the world. An estimated 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced and up to 100,000 have fled the country to Jordan, Syria and other nations. But the US has been slow to take in Iraqis, falling short of its promised goals.
 
During 2006-2007, the US admitted more than 1,600 refugees from Iraq. But that was more than 5,000 short of officials’ original objectives for that time period. The lag prompted US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker to write a memo asking PRM officials to pick up the pace. Then-Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey blamed the problem on lack of infrastructure in Iraq when the refugee program began in 2006 and on Department of Homeland Security restrictions requiring every Iraqi entering the US to undergo thorough examination and review.
 
Democrats called for more funding to aid Iraqi refugees and warned the Bush administration of not repeating mistakes during the Vietnam War when Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian allies were left out in the cold.
 
Bush Goes Around Congress to Appoint PRM Head
Ellen Sauerbrey served almost two years as the assistant secretary in charge of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration - but that was only because President George W. Bush appointed the Christian conservative during a break in Congress. The President made the recess appointment because Congressional Democrats questioned Sauerbrey’s qualifications for the job, calling her another “Michael Brown,” the former head of FEMA who was forced to resign in the wake of the federal government’s poor response during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 who had no background in emergency planning.
 
Prior to running PRM, Sauerbrey had had no experience managing a refugee program. Instead, she had served as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women - where she opposed international programs that supported abortion or contraception. Before that, the longtime Republican had worked as a TV talk show host and twice ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Maryland.

Democrats Zero In On Another Nominee: Ability to Run Refugee Program Queried

(by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post)

 

more
Former Directors:

Ellen Sauerbrey (January 2006 to December 2007)
 
A native of Baltimore, MD, Ellen Sauerbrey served almost two years as a recess appointment to head the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Sauerbrey graduated from Western Maryland College in 1959 before becoming a teacher. She was elected to the Maryland Legislature as a Republican from 1978-1994 and served as minority leader from 1986-1994. Sauerbrey twice ran for governor of Maryland as the Republican nominee and lost both times to Democrat Parris Glendening.
 
In 2002, President Bush nominated Sauerbrey to be the US ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women—a move that outraged numerous women’s organizations opposed to Sauerbrey’s anti-abortion views.
 
In September 2005, President Bush tried to appoint Sauerbrey as the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. The nomination met with considerable opposition from Congressional Democrats (see Controversies).
 
WFEO Bio (PDF)

 

more

Comments

KLA 8 years ago
Issues in the world news include immigration, pollution, famine and others, but all I hear about is bandaid remedies for the various problems. The cause of all these problems is over population. At the rate of human population growth in 20 years we will have no wild elephants and other animals, some fisheries are already gone, and immigration will double and triple unless the population issue is addressed. Industrialized countries infrastructure will not withstand hoards of people trying to leave their homeland seeking a place to live. Why is there no unified effort by the UN and countries to address the population explosion? I think that Singapore some years ago had the best plan for curbing over population: Every family had their first child paid for by the state, including all pre and post natal care. Second child had nothing paid by the state, and 3rd and more offspring were taxed incrementally the more a family had. This allowed for people to self limit and encouraged people to have only children they could support. There were no tax incentives to have more children. The Singaporean motto at the time was "one was enough". Extreme violence and social chaos will be the result of too many mouths to feed. This is not new so why no media attention and government programs to address this issue.
Storie Mooser 13 years ago
The US is already over populated, not as severely as other parts of the world, but the fact remains that we are beyond sustainability. As bad as is our arrogance in thinking that we can afford to police the world, no less is our arrogance in believing we can absorb the globe's distressed over population. Our immigration and refugee policies are fastly taking us to a quality of life standard of minimum caloric requirement. No more Yule log at Christmas, open spaces, wildlife habit...
Hugh 14 years ago
I can understand assisting Iraqi refugees, becasue the US was directly responsible for decimating their country. But tell me, what do the hardships of Gaza refugees have to do with US taxpayer money? Did we ever bomb Gaza?
Bill Hanson 14 years ago
Greetings: Where & how is the following money being spent?? Federal Register: February 4, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 22) DOCID: fr04fe09-106 FR Doc E9-2488 Presidential Documents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement NOTICE: Part II DOCID: fr04fe09-106 DOCUMENT SUMMARY: [[Page 6115]] Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009 Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza Memorandum for the Secretary of State By the authority ves...

Leave a comment

Founded: 1980
Annual Budget: $1.2 billion
Employees: 130
Official Website: http://www.state.gov/g/prm/
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
Richard, Anne
Previous Assistant Secretary

The federal agency responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting them to the United States will soon have a new leader with years of experience at the Department of State. Anne C. Richard was nominated by President Obama on November 4, 2011, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration and confirmed by the Senate on March 29, 2012.

 
Born in May 1960, in her junior year of high school, Richard was a Rotary High School Exchange Student to Austria for 1976-1977. She went on to earn a B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1982 and an M.A. in Public Policy at the University of Chicago in 1984. 
 
Richard started her career in public service as a presidential management intern immediately after receiving her M.A., although she left the U.S. to be a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany from 1985 to 1986. Upon returning stateside, she took a job as a budget examiner in the Office of Management and Budget, where she worked until May 1990, when she began a longtime relationship with the State Department Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, where she served as an Advisor from May 1990 to October 1993.
 
From October 1993 to January 1995, Richard was an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and was part of the team that created the International Crisis Group. Returning to the State Department in January 1995, she served as a Senior Adviser in the Office of Resources, Plans and Policy until August 1997, when she jumped ship to the Peace Corps, of which she was deputy chief financial officer until March 1999. For her third stint at the Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Richard served as director from March 1999 to January 2001, and as such was the chief adviser for budget and planning for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
 
After George W. Bush was inaugurated as president in 2001, Richard left government service and moved to Paris, where she wrote and consulted about international aid for think tanks, the private sector, and international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). She joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in 2004 as a lobbyist, leading the IRC’s relations with the executive branch, Congress, and the NGO community. She also met with senior UN and government officials and visited refugees and IRC staff in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Jordan, Syria, Liberia, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Sudan, and Haiti.
 
Richard is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of the Henry L. Stimson Center and the US Global Leadership Coalition. She has been a non-resident fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations since 2003. She is the author of Fighting Terrorist Financing: Transatlantic Cooperation and International Institutions (2006).
 
She is married to William K. Davis, formerly Director of the United Nations Information Center in Washington, DC; they have two children, Ellie and Max, and live in Bethesda, Maryland. A Democrat, since 2000 Richard has contributed $9,000 to Democratic causes and candidates, including $4,500 to former Admiral Joe Sestak’s House and Senate campaigns in Pennsylvania, $750 to John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign, and $1,000 to Hillary Clinton in 2007.
 
Rating America’s Africa Agenda (by Anne C. Richard, The Globalist)
The “DFID Model”: Lessons for the U.S. (by Anne C. Richard and George Rupp)
Articles by Anne C. Richard (Huffington Post)
 
 
 
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Schwartz, Eric
Former Assistant Secretary

With refugee crises unfolding on every inhabited continent, the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has its work cut out for it. Bureau Director Eric P. Schwartz, who was confirmed June 19, 2009, has broad experience with humanitarian and refugee issues, especially as compared to his predecessor, Ellen Sauerbrey, whose experience in such matters was limited. 

 
Born August 9, 1957, in Syosset, New York, Schwartz has been aware of and in sympathy with the problems of refugees and immigrants since his childhood, having grown up listening to the stories of his grandfather, who emigrated from Romania at the turn of the twentieth century. Schwartz earned a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1979, a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1985, and a Master of Public Affairs degree (with a specialization in International Relations) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1985. After graduation from SUNY-Binghamton, Schwartz interned for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace along with Jeff Merkley, now a Democratic senator from Oregon. At the end of their term, they decided to backpack and bus through Central America, speaking only Spanish and sitting separately on buses so they could talk to Central Americans.
 
After earning his graduate degrees, Schwartz served as Washington Director of the human rights organization Asia Watch (now known as Human Rights Watch-Asia). He left that position in 1989 to serve as Staff Consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he remained through 1993. In 1993, Schwartz joined the Clinton Administration as a staff member on the National Security Council, eventually rising to the post of Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. He played a central role in managing administration responses on a range of peacekeeping, humanitarian and refugee issues, including U.S. support for and involvement in the international, UN-mandated deployment in East Timor, the U.S. train and equip program for West African troops in Sierra Leone, the rescue of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq, the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people, the safe haven program for Haitian refugees and U.S. relief efforts in Central America and Kosovo. 
 
Although he might have expected to be appointed to a key foreign policy post in a Gore administration, George W. Bush’s election in 2000 forced Schwartz out of the executive branch in 2001. From 2001 through 2003, he held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Council on Foreign Relations, completing articles and book chapters on peace operations, humanitarian issues, and refugee policy. As a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, he directed the Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq, working closely with Ambassador Thomas Pickering and James Schlesinger, co-chairs of the Task Force. During this period, he also served as a contributor to the Responsibility to Protect Project of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.
 
In 2003, Mr. Schwartz served at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). In the year following High Commissioner Sérgio Vieira de Mello’s August 2003 assassination in Baghdad, Iraq, Schwartz served as second-ranking official at UNHCHR headquarters, overseeing a variety of planning and budget activities during an exceptionally difficult transition period. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. In that role, he worked under the UN’s Special Envoy, former President Bill Clinton, to promote coordination, accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and best practices in the recovery effort. Also during that period, he served as a lead expert for the Congressionally-mandated Mitchell-Gingrich Task Force on United Nations Reform. In 2007, Schwartz was named Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a non-profit initiative focused on foreign and international affairs. He has been a Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University for some time. 
 
Schwartz and his wife, Catherine M. Graham, have two daughters, Sarah and Anna . A Democrat, Schwartz has contributed $4,050 to Democratic candidates, including $2,300 in 2007 to Jeff Merkley, $500 to Hillary Clinton in early 2008, $1,000 to Barack Obama in late 2008, and $250 to David Orentlicher, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to represent Indiana’s Seventh District in Congress. 
 
Eric Schwartz Profile (WhoRunsGov)
Refugee Issues (interview with Eric P. Schwartz)
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Table of Contents
Bookmark and Share
Overview:
The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) in the US Department of State is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad. It oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. PRM has been criticized for not helping more Iraqis enter the US during the ongoing violence in Iraq, and its onetime leader was accused of being unqualified to run the bureau.
 
more
History:

The US State Department established the Bureau of Refugee Programs in 1980 following one of the most controversial refugee periods in American history. As a result of the US war in Vietnam, hundreds of thousands of people from South Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia fled their home countries, many in makeshift flotillas that produced dramatic news coverage in the US. Obliged to help these displaced Southeast Asians, the US took in large groups of Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians and settled them in states such as California (San Jose and Orange County), Minnesota and Texas.
 
The newly established Bureau of Refugees was forced to deal with other episodes of international political instability in the 1980s that caused smaller waves of refugees into the US. Some of the more prominent cases were in Central America as a result of US foreign policy aims in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The latter involved American support for the Contra rebels in an effort to destabilize the Sandinista government, creating havoc not only in Nicaragua but neighboring countries as well. Globally, the number of refugees increased from roughly eight million in 1980 to nearly 18 million in 1992.
 
The end of the Cold War ushered in a period of intrastate tensions and conflicts in the former republics of the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Ukraine and the former Yugoslavia states of Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia Herzegovina. These political hot spots produced a sharp increase in the number of refugees. In the last decade, there have been dramatic increases in the numbers of “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) - domestic refugees inside countries who never travel across borders. Current estimates place the number of internally displaced persons between 25 and 30 million, which is twice the number of refugees around the world.
 
Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government retracted immigration and refugee opportunities out of fear of allowing more terrorists to slip into the country. This produced record lows in refugee totals. But since 2005, the number of refugees admitted to the US has rebounded significantly, according to the State Department’s Office of Inspector General (PDF).
 
more
What it Does:

Located within the State Department, the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) is responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting refugees to the United States. PRM administers and monitors American contributions to international and non-governmental organizations to assist and protect refugees abroad, and it oversees admissions of refugees to the US for permanent resettlement in coordination with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the Department of Health and Human Services and various state and private voluntary agencies. In FY 2007, 48,281 refugees were admitted to the US.
 
PRM takes the lead for the State Department in matters related to international population policy, working closely with the Bureau for International Organizations, US Agency for International Development (USAID) and other federal agencies. The bureau works to increase national and international awareness of population issues and integrate these issues into broader economic growth and development strategies. PRM also monitors demographic trends of refugees and integrates them into the policy process. PRM represents the US on the governing bodies of international and multilateral organizations, such as the UN Population Fund and the UN Commission on Population and Development. PRM does not manage population program funds; this is done by USAID. Most US population assistance is provided through the USAID Child Survival and Health Account.
 
PRM leads the State Department’s efforts to bolster UN agencies and NGOs responding to humanitarian needs of refugees in Iraq. USAID programs support thousands of internally displaced persons (IDPs) inside Iraq and other at-risk people through activities such as emergency relief supplies and support for mobile medical teams and emergency health. Almost $1 billion in humanitarian assistance for displaced Iraqis in Iraq and neighboring states has been given by the U.S. government since 2003.
 
The Iraq war has produced one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the world, with more than one and a half million Iraqis displaced from their homes. But the United States has been slow to take in Iraqi refugees (see Controversies) because of tougher security screenings. Also, as part of its FY 2009 budget request for Migration and Refugee Assistance, PRM excluded funding for Iraq and Afghanistan, telling Congress the Bush administration preferred to “continue to review humanitarian assistance needs” in those regions and request supplemental funding at a later time, if necessary.
 
Refugee Assistance
PRM financial support for refugees is distributed throughout the world, with the Near East ($290 million) and Africa ($288 million) the largest beneficiaries, according to the bureau’s latest budget report (PDF) to Congress. For example, aid to Africa went to help refugees caught in the political crisis happening in Darfur (Sudan-Chad), Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Zimbabwe. Key countries outside Africa receiving aid are Afghanistan, Burma, Sri Lanka, North Korea, the West Bank/Gaza, Nepal, Colombia, the Balkans and North Caucasus.
 
According to the Federal Grants Wire, PRM maintains seven geographically-based assistance programs:
 
Facts, reports and briefings regarding refugee assistance are available on the PRM web site, along with information on how non-governmental organizations can apply for financial support for overseas operations that aid refugees.

 

more
Where Does the Money Go:

The majority of PRM-managed funds (87%) are given to international organizations. The rest goes to NGOs. The primary recipients of PRM’s largess are:
  • Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees
  • International Red Cross
  • UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
  • International Organization for Migration
  • UN Children’s Fund
  • UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
  • World Food Program
  • UN Development Program
  • Red Crescent
 

In FY 2007 PRM distributed refugee assistance funds to 48 NGO’s. The top six recipients were the International Rescue Committee, International Medical Corps, American Refugee Committee, Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), Catholic Relief Services and the International Catholic Migration Commission.

 

more
Controversies:

US Slow to Take Iraqi Refugees
US officials and refugee experts have declared Iraq one of the worst refugee crises in the world. An estimated 1.7 million Iraqis have been displaced and up to 100,000 have fled the country to Jordan, Syria and other nations. But the US has been slow to take in Iraqis, falling short of its promised goals.
 
During 2006-2007, the US admitted more than 1,600 refugees from Iraq. But that was more than 5,000 short of officials’ original objectives for that time period. The lag prompted US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker to write a memo asking PRM officials to pick up the pace. Then-Assistant Secretary Ellen Sauerbrey blamed the problem on lack of infrastructure in Iraq when the refugee program began in 2006 and on Department of Homeland Security restrictions requiring every Iraqi entering the US to undergo thorough examination and review.
 
Democrats called for more funding to aid Iraqi refugees and warned the Bush administration of not repeating mistakes during the Vietnam War when Vietnamese and other Southeast Asian allies were left out in the cold.
 
Bush Goes Around Congress to Appoint PRM Head
Ellen Sauerbrey served almost two years as the assistant secretary in charge of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration - but that was only because President George W. Bush appointed the Christian conservative during a break in Congress. The President made the recess appointment because Congressional Democrats questioned Sauerbrey’s qualifications for the job, calling her another “Michael Brown,” the former head of FEMA who was forced to resign in the wake of the federal government’s poor response during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 who had no background in emergency planning.
 
Prior to running PRM, Sauerbrey had had no experience managing a refugee program. Instead, she had served as ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women - where she opposed international programs that supported abortion or contraception. Before that, the longtime Republican had worked as a TV talk show host and twice ran, unsuccessfully, for governor of Maryland.

Democrats Zero In On Another Nominee: Ability to Run Refugee Program Queried

(by Glenn Kessler, Washington Post)

 

more
Former Directors:

Ellen Sauerbrey (January 2006 to December 2007)
 
A native of Baltimore, MD, Ellen Sauerbrey served almost two years as a recess appointment to head the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. Sauerbrey graduated from Western Maryland College in 1959 before becoming a teacher. She was elected to the Maryland Legislature as a Republican from 1978-1994 and served as minority leader from 1986-1994. Sauerbrey twice ran for governor of Maryland as the Republican nominee and lost both times to Democrat Parris Glendening.
 
In 2002, President Bush nominated Sauerbrey to be the US ambassador to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women—a move that outraged numerous women’s organizations opposed to Sauerbrey’s anti-abortion views.
 
In September 2005, President Bush tried to appoint Sauerbrey as the Assistant Secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration. The nomination met with considerable opposition from Congressional Democrats (see Controversies).
 
WFEO Bio (PDF)

 

more

Comments

KLA 8 years ago
Issues in the world news include immigration, pollution, famine and others, but all I hear about is bandaid remedies for the various problems. The cause of all these problems is over population. At the rate of human population growth in 20 years we will have no wild elephants and other animals, some fisheries are already gone, and immigration will double and triple unless the population issue is addressed. Industrialized countries infrastructure will not withstand hoards of people trying to leave their homeland seeking a place to live. Why is there no unified effort by the UN and countries to address the population explosion? I think that Singapore some years ago had the best plan for curbing over population: Every family had their first child paid for by the state, including all pre and post natal care. Second child had nothing paid by the state, and 3rd and more offspring were taxed incrementally the more a family had. This allowed for people to self limit and encouraged people to have only children they could support. There were no tax incentives to have more children. The Singaporean motto at the time was "one was enough". Extreme violence and social chaos will be the result of too many mouths to feed. This is not new so why no media attention and government programs to address this issue.
Storie Mooser 13 years ago
The US is already over populated, not as severely as other parts of the world, but the fact remains that we are beyond sustainability. As bad as is our arrogance in thinking that we can afford to police the world, no less is our arrogance in believing we can absorb the globe's distressed over population. Our immigration and refugee policies are fastly taking us to a quality of life standard of minimum caloric requirement. No more Yule log at Christmas, open spaces, wildlife habit...
Hugh 14 years ago
I can understand assisting Iraqi refugees, becasue the US was directly responsible for decimating their country. But tell me, what do the hardships of Gaza refugees have to do with US taxpayer money? Did we ever bomb Gaza?
Bill Hanson 14 years ago
Greetings: Where & how is the following money being spent?? Federal Register: February 4, 2009 (Volume 74, Number 22) DOCID: fr04fe09-106 FR Doc E9-2488 Presidential Documents U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement NOTICE: Part II DOCID: fr04fe09-106 DOCUMENT SUMMARY: [[Page 6115]] Presidential Determination No. 2009-15 of January 27, 2009 Unexpected Urgent Refugee and Migration Needs Related To Gaza Memorandum for the Secretary of State By the authority ves...

Leave a comment

Founded: 1980
Annual Budget: $1.2 billion
Employees: 130
Official Website: http://www.state.gov/g/prm/
Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration
Richard, Anne
Previous Assistant Secretary

The federal agency responsible for helping refugees around the world either through assistance to international and non-governmental organizations or by admitting them to the United States will soon have a new leader with years of experience at the Department of State. Anne C. Richard was nominated by President Obama on November 4, 2011, to be Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees and Migration and confirmed by the Senate on March 29, 2012.

 
Born in May 1960, in her junior year of high school, Richard was a Rotary High School Exchange Student to Austria for 1976-1977. She went on to earn a B.S. in Foreign Service at Georgetown University in 1982 and an M.A. in Public Policy at the University of Chicago in 1984. 
 
Richard started her career in public service as a presidential management intern immediately after receiving her M.A., although she left the U.S. to be a fellow of the Robert Bosch Foundation in Germany from 1985 to 1986. Upon returning stateside, she took a job as a budget examiner in the Office of Management and Budget, where she worked until May 1990, when she began a longtime relationship with the State Department Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, where she served as an Advisor from May 1990 to October 1993.
 
From October 1993 to January 1995, Richard was an International Affairs Fellow of the Council on Foreign Relations and was part of the team that created the International Crisis Group. Returning to the State Department in January 1995, she served as a Senior Adviser in the Office of Resources, Plans and Policy until August 1997, when she jumped ship to the Peace Corps, of which she was deputy chief financial officer until March 1999. For her third stint at the Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Richard served as director from March 1999 to January 2001, and as such was the chief adviser for budget and planning for Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
 
After George W. Bush was inaugurated as president in 2001, Richard left government service and moved to Paris, where she wrote and consulted about international aid for think tanks, the private sector, and international organizations, including the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS). She joined the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in 2004 as a lobbyist, leading the IRC’s relations with the executive branch, Congress, and the NGO community. She also met with senior UN and government officials and visited refugees and IRC staff in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Thailand, Burma/Myanmar, Jordan, Syria, Liberia, Kenya, South Sudan, Uganda, Sudan, and Haiti.
 
Richard is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves on the boards of the Henry L. Stimson Center and the US Global Leadership Coalition. She has been a non-resident fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations since 2003. She is the author of Fighting Terrorist Financing: Transatlantic Cooperation and International Institutions (2006).
 
She is married to William K. Davis, formerly Director of the United Nations Information Center in Washington, DC; they have two children, Ellie and Max, and live in Bethesda, Maryland. A Democrat, since 2000 Richard has contributed $9,000 to Democratic causes and candidates, including $4,500 to former Admiral Joe Sestak’s House and Senate campaigns in Pennsylvania, $750 to John Kerry’s 2004 Presidential campaign, and $1,000 to Hillary Clinton in 2007.
 
Rating America’s Africa Agenda (by Anne C. Richard, The Globalist)
The “DFID Model”: Lessons for the U.S. (by Anne C. Richard and George Rupp)
Articles by Anne C. Richard (Huffington Post)
 
 
 
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Schwartz, Eric
Former Assistant Secretary

With refugee crises unfolding on every inhabited continent, the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration has its work cut out for it. Bureau Director Eric P. Schwartz, who was confirmed June 19, 2009, has broad experience with humanitarian and refugee issues, especially as compared to his predecessor, Ellen Sauerbrey, whose experience in such matters was limited. 

 
Born August 9, 1957, in Syosset, New York, Schwartz has been aware of and in sympathy with the problems of refugees and immigrants since his childhood, having grown up listening to the stories of his grandfather, who emigrated from Romania at the turn of the twentieth century. Schwartz earned a B.A. in Political Science from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1979, a law degree from New York University School of Law in 1985, and a Master of Public Affairs degree (with a specialization in International Relations) from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University in 1985. After graduation from SUNY-Binghamton, Schwartz interned for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace along with Jeff Merkley, now a Democratic senator from Oregon. At the end of their term, they decided to backpack and bus through Central America, speaking only Spanish and sitting separately on buses so they could talk to Central Americans.
 
After earning his graduate degrees, Schwartz served as Washington Director of the human rights organization Asia Watch (now known as Human Rights Watch-Asia). He left that position in 1989 to serve as Staff Consultant to the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs, where he remained through 1993. In 1993, Schwartz joined the Clinton Administration as a staff member on the National Security Council, eventually rising to the post of Senior Director and Special Assistant to the President for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs. He played a central role in managing administration responses on a range of peacekeeping, humanitarian and refugee issues, including U.S. support for and involvement in the international, UN-mandated deployment in East Timor, the U.S. train and equip program for West African troops in Sierra Leone, the rescue of Kurdish refugees from Northern Iraq, the resettlement of Vietnamese boat people, the safe haven program for Haitian refugees and U.S. relief efforts in Central America and Kosovo. 
 
Although he might have expected to be appointed to a key foreign policy post in a Gore administration, George W. Bush’s election in 2000 forced Schwartz out of the executive branch in 2001. From 2001 through 2003, he held fellowships at the Woodrow Wilson Center, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the Council on Foreign Relations, completing articles and book chapters on peace operations, humanitarian issues, and refugee policy. As a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, he directed the Independent Task Force on Post-Conflict Iraq, working closely with Ambassador Thomas Pickering and James Schlesinger, co-chairs of the Task Force. During this period, he also served as a contributor to the Responsibility to Protect Project of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.
 
In 2003, Mr. Schwartz served at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR). In the year following High Commissioner Sérgio Vieira de Mello’s August 2003 assassination in Baghdad, Iraq, Schwartz served as second-ranking official at UNHCHR headquarters, overseeing a variety of planning and budget activities during an exceptionally difficult transition period. Between 2005 and 2007, he served as UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Deputy Special Envoy for Tsunami Recovery. In that role, he worked under the UN’s Special Envoy, former President Bill Clinton, to promote coordination, accountability to donors and beneficiaries, and best practices in the recovery effort. Also during that period, he served as a lead expert for the Congressionally-mandated Mitchell-Gingrich Task Force on United Nations Reform. In 2007, Schwartz was named Executive Director of the Connect U.S. Fund, a non-profit initiative focused on foreign and international affairs. He has been a Visiting Lecturer of Public and International Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University for some time. 
 
Schwartz and his wife, Catherine M. Graham, have two daughters, Sarah and Anna . A Democrat, Schwartz has contributed $4,050 to Democratic candidates, including $2,300 in 2007 to Jeff Merkley, $500 to Hillary Clinton in early 2008, $1,000 to Barack Obama in late 2008, and $250 to David Orentlicher, who ran unsuccessfully for the Democratic nomination to represent Indiana’s Seventh District in Congress. 
 
Eric Schwartz Profile (WhoRunsGov)
Refugee Issues (interview with Eric P. Schwartz)
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