FAQs about Vermont Refugee Assistance
1. What does Vermont Refugee Assistance do?
2. How does VRA find out about people who need help?
3. Why are immigrants being detained in detention centers and small county facilities such as the Franklin County jail?
4. How does VRA help its clients?
5. Why is this organization based in Vermont?
6. Do you work anywhere else?
7. Why do Canadian-bound asylum-seekers pass through Vermont?
8. Is the help you provide to refugees unique?
9. How is VRA evolving?
10. What kind of success stories do you have to share?
11. What is your biggest challenge right now?
12. Who is the team at VRA?
13. Who are the board members?
14. How is VRA organized?
15. How can I learn more about refugees in Vermont, and around the world?
16. What exactly is a refugee?
17. What is the difference between refugees and immigrants?
18. What is an asylum-seeker?
19. How can I help?
1. What does Vermont Refugee Assistance do?
Vermont Refugee Assistance (VRA) works to help refugees and people seeking political asylum obtain proper status and safe haven. VRA also works with immigrants in need of legal services.
2. How does VRA find out about people who need help?
Vermont Refugee Assistance works with many other organizations in the United States and around the world. Refugees entering the United States find VRA through word of mouth, website listings, and referrals from other agencies.
Asylum seekers in the U.S. without the proper identity documents (identity documents are frequently impossible to get in their country of origin, as it is often their own government from whom they fear persecution) are detained in jails in upstate New York and Vermont. VRA works closely with the jails to monitor the asylum seeker and immigrant population and serve their legal and social needs.
3. Why are immigrants being detained in detention centers and small county facilities such as the Franklin County jail?
In 1996, Congress drastically tightened U.S. immigration policy. The 1996 laws include a mandatory detention provision for all asylum seekers who arrive in the U.S. without valid documents. Congress also redefined and expanded the types of offenses for which immigrants, including legal permanent residents, can be deported — and applied those definitions retroactively. The law also eliminated judicial discretion to consider mitigating factors such as rehabilitation, family hardship or military service. The result is that long-time, law-abiding immigrants with U.S. citizen spouses and children have been detained or deported for minor offenses committed long ago.
4. How does VRA help its clients?
VRA provides support and services in several areas:
Legal support: VRA staff members are trained in the intricacies of the immigration laws that govern asylum claims and other immigration matters. While they are not lawyers, they are more versed in this area than many practicing attorneys and their advocacy work is well respected. Asylum seekers who have been detained are in particular need of this immigration assistance. The VRA staff assists in preparing applications, finding lawyers when appropriate, and making sure procedures have been followed, so that an applicant’s case is not thrown out of court on a technicality.
Transit support: VRA helps transiting Canadian-bound asylum seekers make their way to the Highgate, Vermont, and Champlain, New York, ports of entry to make their refugee claims. This may involve meeting them at the bus in Burlington and driving them to the border; it may involve providing short-term housing. A network of volunteers in Burlington and the surrounding areas helps provide transit support.
Humanitarian Aid: VRA works to provide food, shelter, clothing, language and legal assistance for asylum seekers in Vermont. By U.S. law, persons applying for asylum are not allowed to work for several months, and frequently asylum seekers whose cases are “in process” are in great need. Detained asylum seekers are isolated and frightened in INS detention: VRA provides human contact, legal and social support, and comfort.
Advocacy: VRA provides a voice for asylum seekers who wish to enter the United States. VRA works with the Vermont Congressional delegation, the United Nations, and other non-governmental organizations around the world to advocate for the rights and needs of asylum seekers and immigrants. In recent months, VRA has led the fight against even more restrictive immigration law under the recently signed Safe Third Country Agreement between the U.S. and Canada.
5. Why is this organization based in Vermont?
In 1987, when the organization was founded, Vermont was leading the country in providing sanctuary for asylum seekers from Central American wars. Over time, the needs of asylum seekers have changed, as have U.S. immigration laws, and they are arriving from different countries. But Vermont is an important area because of the border it shares with Canada, and its accessibility to New York and Boston.
Many refugees (over 14,000 in 2001) transit through the U.S. to apply for asylum in Canada. A significant portion of these refugees apply for asylum at the Champlain/Lacolle border port of entry north of Plattsburgh, New York.
6. Do you work anywhere else?
VRA deals primarily with refugees in Vermont or transiting through Vermont. VRA cooperates with humanitarian organizations in other northern border states. There are organizations like VRA in Portland, Maine; Buffalo, New York; and Detroit, Michigan. VRA is also part of a national network of groups that provide legal and social services to detained (and non-detained) immigrants and asylum seekers.
7. Why do Canadian-bound asylum-seekers pass through Vermont?
Why don’t they go directly to Canada from their orginal departure points?
Canada has few airports. It is much easier to travel to the U.S. from places around the world than it is to Canada.
8. Is the help you provide to refugees unique?
Yes! While there are other organizations, such as the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program, that help refugees after they have been granted status by the U.S. State Department and have sponsors, only VRA works with refugee applicants to help them through the very complicated process of applying for asylum.
9. How is VRA evolving?
Initially, the work of VRA was solely assisting Canadian-bound asylum seekers. Since the early 1990s,VRA has worked with detained and non-detained immigrants and asylum seekers.
VRA adapts to the various changes in immigration law and policy to serve our clients. A new agreement between the US and Canada will significantly change policy at the northern border in 2003, and we are working closely with other organizations to make sure that there is not a humanitarian crisis. VRA will continue to serve those who need help in immigrating to the U.S. or Canada.
10. What kind of success stories do you have to share?
Because of confidentiality, we cannot cite specific cases. However, there have been terrific successes over the past 15 years – many of our clients are now settled in Vermont and Canada. Often the needs of the client change over the course of the application process, which can take several years. We have worked with thousands of people, from all over the world.
11. What is your biggest challenge right now?
VRA is challenged right now by the need to plan for the effects of the Safe Third Country Agreement, which will threaten safe conditions for refugees in the United States and limit their ability to transit to Canada. While VRA was a leader in lobbying against the agreement, the Secretary of State signed it in early December, and now we must focus on planning for its implementation.
In the near-term, implementation could cause severe border backlogs at Lacolle in late winter and early spring of 2003. Housing and humanitarian aid will be needed in Plattsburgh and Burlington for possibly thousands of refugees hoping to transit to Canada. When the Agreement was initially announced in late June of 2002, over 100 claimants a day appeared in Lacolle (versus the usual 30-40 per day). Any influx in the number of refugee claimants will strain both the Canadian and U.S. systems – VRA is trying to create the safety net to support refugees who wish to claim asylum in Canada.
12. Who is the team at VRA?
We are lucky to have two tremendously talented and experienced staff members.
Patrick Giantonio is our Director.
Michele Jenness is our Legal Services Coordinator
13. Who are the board members?
14. How is VRA organized?
VRA is a 501 (C) (3) nonprofit organization founded in 1987. All donations are tax-deductible. VRA receives grants from humanitarian and religious organizations, but VRA is non-sectarian.
15. How can I learn more about refugees in Vermont, and around the world?
VRA has a number of educational materials available to you. We would be happy to set up an informational meeting in your community – part of our mission is to educate Vermonters about refugee issues, and the responsibilities of all the world to meet the needs of refugees.
Some useful websites are:
* U.S. Committee for Refugees
* Refugee Council USA
* Canadian Council for Refugees
16. What exactly is a refugee?
(The following definitions are from the U.S. Committee for Refugees website.)
Generally, a refugee is a person who has fled his/her country because of fear of persecution. U.S. law incorporated the refugee definition contained in the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, adopted in Geneva in 1951, which defines a refugee as a person who “owing to a well founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being outside the country of his former habitual residence as a result of such events, is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to return to it.”
Refugees require special protection, essentially an exception to immigration controls established for all other groups, because at the root of the cause of their exile is a serious human rights violation. Their cases are compelling because of the grave risks to their lives and freedom if forcibly returned. They fear persecution based on five specific grounds: race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. The refugee definition also requires that they cross an international frontier.
17. What is the difference between refugees and immigrants?
Refugees have fled because of persecution while immigrants have left their home countries for other reasons.
The term “refugee” is used internationally to represent individuals who have had to flee their country because of persecution on account of their race, religion, political opinion, ethnicity or social group (these are the grounds for a U.S. definition but most Western nations have similar standards). The language confusion surfaces in the interpretation of terms under U.S. immigration law.
By U.S. definition, someone who arrives as a “refugee” is a person who has been granted “refugee status” before they enter the U.S. (and granted by the U.S. State Department). Normally this takes place when a refugee finds temporary safety in another country where the United Nations and the U.S. State Department review their case and accept them as a refugee. These individuals are then granted refugee status and are permitted to enter the U.S. Upon entry they are assisted by one of many resettlement groups who operate nationally (and in coordination with the U.S. State Department). Upon entry these individuals are technically in “refugee status” and are eligible to work, attend school and generally start their lives anew. One year after they are granted refugee status, they are able to apply for legal permanent residence (LPR or Green Card holder – although LPR cards are not actually “green”). Five years after receiving LPR status they may apply for citizenship.
Someone arriving as an “asylum seeker” arrives in the U.S. without having had their case reviewed and granted by the U.S. government. It is important to note that the U.S. asylum system is almost invisible and not available to most of the world’s refugees. Only a very tiny percentage actually find temporary protection and are able to secure an interview with a U.S. asylum officer before entering the U.S. (Typically, asylum officers make trips to UNHCR camps to conduct asylum interviews.)
18. What is an asylum-seeker?
ASYLUM SEEKERS arrive by various methods – sometimes arriving with a valid tourist or student visa, oftentimes using false documents such as someone else’s passport. Although this is accepted as quite normal and necessary for many individuals to find protection, under current U.S. law anyone who is apprehended at a port of entry (such as an airport) with false documents is detained (jailed) under what is called “mandatory detention”.
If an asylum seeker makes it into the country then they may file their case for asylum “affirmatively” if they present their case to INS before they are apprehended; or “defensively” if they have been apprehended (often they are detained if they have been apprehended for being in the U.S. without proper documentation to be here).
VRA works with asylum seekers before they are apprehended – to file their cases affirmatively; also with them if they have been apprehended by INS or Border Patrol – to file their cases defensively in immigration court (our court for this INS district is in Boston); we also work with asylum seekers who have been apprehended and are detained by INS.
INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS – It is important to note that millions of individuals in the world who have been persecuted (or/and fear future persecution) do not come under the UN definition of “refugee” as they did not flee outside their home country but were able to find temporary safety within the boundaries of their country of origin.
19. How can I help?
You can help in many ways. Becoming a VRA supporter by writing a check is a terrific way to support our work. We are a grassroots organization with a small budget and every penny counts. In-kind donations are also welcome.
We are always in need of volunteers, both to help with transiting (driving), providing housing, and to provide support for humanitarian needs. We train our volunteers so that they clearly understand what’s required - whether for support or at the border - and we work very closely with them.
