The Midwestern city of 250,000 is not only home to the largest Burmese community in America, the U.S.State Department also uses it extensively as a resettlement site.
VOA: standard.2010.07.22
The episode has called attention, however, to a serious problem: an influx of what often prove to be quite radical Muslim immigrant populations as part of a State Department refugee-resettlement program dating back to the Clinton Administration.
"It was the embassy's view, and the Department concurred, that because of their vulnerability, we should consider them for resettlement, " says a spokeswoman for the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
Being a liaison has empowered NNAAC members to build strategic partnerships with Health and Human Services (HHS), Department of Justice (DOJ), and Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), amongst others.