Exclusive: Senior State Dept. refugee
official sidelined - sources
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[January 10, 2018]
By Yeganeh Torbati and Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. official who
has been a defender of refugees has been sidelined within the State
Department in what some advocates and former officials fear is part of
the Trump administration's goal of limiting refugee resettlement in the
United States.
Lawrence Bartlett, head of refugee admissions at the State Department's
Population, Refugees and Migration bureau, is now on a temporary
assignment at another office, a State Department spokeswoman said.
Bartlett's future leadership of the refugee office has been in doubt for
months. He is now a temporary senior adviser at the State Department
office that handles requests for information under the Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA).
Sending a civil servant of his experience and rank to that office is
unusual, according to current and former U.S. officials who spoke on
condition of anonymity.
A current official described such a re-assignment as a form of internal
exile like being sent "to Siberia."
"The FOIA office was always the punch line of a joke around here, as in:
'They'll send me to the FOIA office,'" the official said.
Bartlett's reassignment is the latest sign that the way the United
States resettles refugees is being reshaped by the Trump administration,
which is determined to restrict refugee admissions, advocates said.
TRUMP REFUGEE RECORD
Since taking office last January, President Donald Trump has slashed the
number of refugees allowed into the country, paused the refugee program
entirely for four months, instituted stricter vetting requirements, and
quit negotiations on a voluntary pact to deal with global migration.
A State Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the reason for
Bartlett's new temporary assignment, but she said access to information,
including FOIA requests, is "a high priority of the Department of State
to promote transparency."
She declined to say who will fill the position in his absence and
whether he would eventually return to his refugee position.
It is too early to know what ultimate effect Bartlett's re-assignment
will have on the refugee program or on the State Department's role in
internal debates on its future.
Bartlett did not respond to a range of questions about his new role, but
did say he has not been told the assignment is permanent.
"I can assure you that I have NOT been permanently reassigned from my
position with the refugee program," Bartlett wrote in an e-mail to
Reuters.
Refugee advocates say Bartlett was a strong and effective advocate for
the resettlement program inside the Trump administration.
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Lawrence Bartlett, head of refugee admissions at the State
Department's Population, Refugees and Migration bureau, is shown
speaking before the Heritage Foundation in this still image taken
from video of his September 20, 2017 appearance that was obtained on
January 9, 2018. CSPAN/Handout via REUTERS
Trump has said refugee resettlement is both costly and a threat to
national security but advocates say refugees contribute positively
to U.S. communities and are vetted rigorously.
In the first three months of this fiscal year, which began in
October, the United States accepted about 5,300 refugees, the lowest
number in the first quarter of any year since 2003, according to
State Department data.
Refugee advocates say they worry Bartlett could be permanently
replaced with someone with far less experience.
"We are of course extremely concerned, looking at what's happened
with other government departments, that he will be replaced by a
political appointee who is just going to continue to destroy the
program," said Hans Van de Weerd, vice president of U.S. programs at
the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit which resettles
refugees.
Supporters of the administration's harder line on immigration said
Bartlett's reassignment should not be seen as unusual.
"No federal government employee is so uniquely qualified and so
perfect for any job that they're the only one who can do it," said
Jessica Vaughan, of the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors
stricter limits on immigration.
Bartlett's role as director of the admissions office entailed
engaging with the major non-profit agencies responsible for
receiving refugees admitted into the United States.
Since approximately November, Bartlett has not been included on
communications between the State Department and outside refugee
agencies that he normally would have been, one person involved in
refugee resettlement said. Bartlett was serving as director of the
refugee admissions office as of late October, according to a State
Department document seen by Reuters.
Bartlett returned in mid-December from Puerto Rico, where he had
been sent late last year to assist the federal response to a
hurricane.
(Editing by Sue Horton and Alistair Bell)
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