IMMIGRATION: “One of the top U.S. government officials working on refugee issues announced her impending retirement on Tuesday [1-2-18], and refugee advocates expressed concern about the fate of the country’s resettlement program which faces mounting pressure from the Trump administration.
Barbara Strack, a career official and chief of the Refugee Affairs Division at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, did not specify when she will leave her post, but USCIS spokesman R. Carter Langston said it would be in January.
In a statement to Reuters, Strack said she was retiring because, given her birthday is on Tuesday, she had reached one of the benchmarks for federal retirement…
Advocates expressed concern at the timing of Strack’s retirement, saying it could further hamper U.S. refugee admissions. It was unclear immediately who would replace her…
The Refugee Affairs Division, which Strack oversees, includes dozens of officers charged with interviewing refugees abroad for resettlement in the United States.
The Trump administration has slashed the number of refugees allowed into the country and put in place new vetting and security requirements that have created an additional barrier. Last year, the administration said it planned to divert some refugee officers to instead interview asylum applicants already in the United States, in an effort to cut down on a burgeoning backlog of asylum cases.”
-Yeganeh Torbati, “Senior U.S. refugee official to retire this month,” Reuters, Jan. 2, 2017 12:25pm