Detroit's Mayor: No to Iraqi Refugees

Detroit -- The "possibility" of thousands of Iraqi refugees coming to Warren would burden city services and add to joblessness, Warren Mayor Mark Steenbergh said Wednesday.

Steenbergh questioned whether the federal government will provide financial assistance to communities that become the new home for scores of persecuted Iraqis fleeing their homeland, and said he will press federal officials -- including President Bush -- for answers.

Warren officials said they've been told that up to two-thirds of the 25,000 Iraqi refugees that the federal government agreed in April to accept could resettle in Warren and Sterling Heights.

"I don't understand how the federal government believes we can handle those kinds of numbers," Steenbergh said. "If the numbers shared with my staff are accurate, I'm extremely concerned that we cannot handle this burden placed upon our resources."

Rep. Sander Levin immediately refuted the claims by Warren officials.

"The information released today by the city of Warren is inaccurate and misleading," Levin said in a news release. He said his office was told Wednesday by the State Department that those 25,000 Iraqis would be relocated over a number of years and in nine different regions of the country.

"While the hope was to resettle 7,000 this year, the State Department has recently informed the international community that the U.S. can process at most only 2,000 individuals nationwide by the end of September 2007," Levin said.

According to a recent Associated Press report, only 133 of the planned 7,000 Iraqi refugees were allowed into the United States during the past nine months, due to extensive background checks and interviews by the Homeland Security Department and the FBI because of fears that some seeking entry may be terrorists.

Levin, a Democrat who represents most of Macomb County, also pointed out that the State Department said the priority for eligibility for refugee resettlement is not based on contacts with family or other people already living in a community, which means that is no basis for projecting specific allocation of refugees to a specific community.

Steenbergh said his biggest concern about an influx of immigrants is the lack of jobs in the area.

"Longtime Warren residents are having trouble finding jobs. This is not the time to add more people to a shrinking pool of employment."

Steenbergh's remarks troubled the head of a Chaldean business group.

Martin Manna, president of the Chaldean-American Chamber of Commerce, scoffed at notions an influx of refugees fleeing war-torn Iraq would hamper Warren or squeeze the job market.

"It's definitely blown out of proportion," Manna said of Steenbergh's remarks. "It's definitely more about (city) politics than anything else. It sounds like bigotry and sounds very anti-Catholic to me."

Ninety refugees are expected to arrive in Macomb County possibly within the next few weeks. With the bulk of Christians of Iraqi descent residing in Sterling Heights and Warren, those two cities likely will have the largest influx because people seeking refugee status must list someone living in the United States as a contact person.

Warren officials want to know how many, and when, more refugees may settle in the city.

The number of potential refugees has not alarmed Sterling Heights officials, said Steve Guitar, a spokesman for the city.

Guitar and City Manager Mark Vanderpool attended a meeting last week coordinated by the Macomb County Department of Planning and Economic Development. The meeting was requested by Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, which assists refugees in tapping community resources, including housing and employment assistance.

Lutheran Social Services estimates approximately 50 of the 90 refugees arriving shortly have family ties in Warren and Sterling Heights.

"We're going to send an update to the (council) today," Guitar told The Macomb Daily.

City officials have no solid numbers to go by.

"We're continuing to monitor the situation. That's all I can tell you," Guitar said.

Key Warren officials were invited to the July 10 meeting but did not attend because of vacations, said Communications Director Joe Munem, who added that administrators followed up the next day.

But talk of thousands of refugees has Warren officials concerned about the impact on demand for police, fire, public works and other services.

"What is the federal government going to do to make sure local communities and schools have financial resources to accommodate these people?" Munem said. "The more bodies there are the more city services that need to be provided."

Warren, the third-most populated community in Michigan, has 136,824 residents -- a drop of 1,423 people from the 2000 U.S. Census, according to the Southeastern Michigan Council of Governments. From 1990 to 2000, Warren's population decreased by 4.6 percent.

In recent years, city administrators and the Warren City Council have eliminated dozen of jobs, mostly through attrition, while complaining about millions of dollars of cuts in state-shared revenues.

Manna, of the Chaldean-American Chamber of Commerce, said members of his group would help support Iraqi refugees and may provide jobs.

"They would not be a burden. The fact that we're losing population in Michigan, we should welcome them here," he said.

The unemployment rate in Michigan rose to 7.2 percent in June, the highest point this year, the state announced Wednesday. The state jobless rate in May of 6.9 percent already was the highest in the country.

Don Morandini, deputy director of planning and economic development for Macomb County, said government officials last week provided details about housing, public transportation, employment, health care, education and other community services for representatives of Lutheran Social Services and the Chaldean Federation of America. He noted, for example, the county offers free classes through its Small Business and Technology Development Center.

Organizations also have inquired about names of apartment complexes in Warren and Sterling Heights where refugees may prefer to live close together and near bus lines operated by the Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation.

Levin said that the U.S. has "historically joined with other nations in assisting individuals fleeing from religious, ethnic or other persecution."

"I am confident that we will do so responsibly regarding refugees from Iraq, which cannot happen based on the spread of inaccurate information."

By Norb Franz
www.macombdaily.com

Staff Writer Ed Fitzgerald contributed to this report.