MIKE POMPEO/REFUGEES/STATE/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Thirty-two prominent former U.S. diplomats and 11 aid groups on Monday [7-23-18] urged U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to eliminate a key State Department refugee bureau, warning that the move would be ‘an error of grave proportion.’ In a letter to Pompeo, the former diplomats and national security advisers who served both Democratic and Republican administrations, said eliminating the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) office would impact the U.S. ability to influence global refugee policy. The letter comes barely a year after 58 U.S. policy experts warned Rex Tillerson, former secretary of state, against such a move. The Trump administration has defended its hardline immigration policy, including a travel ban against some countries and the detention of immigrants entering the United States illegally…The United Nations reported last month that the global number of refugees grew by a record 2.9 million in 2017 to 25.4 million, with another 43.1 million people forcibly displaced.”
–Lesley Wroughton, “Ex-diplomats warn Pompeo against eliminating U.S. refugee bureau,” Reuters, July 23, 2018 12:00 pm