Review of the Miami, Florida Office of Refugee Resettlement

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This report points out that the functions previously performed by the Miami Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) are now performed by the State refugee agency. Further, the Miami office maintains obsolete refugee information and disseminates incorrect information on the refugee status of individuals which is causing erroneous payments to be made. Moreover, the Miami staff is not responsible for any of ORR's priority functions of monitoring, oversight or technical assistance and has limited contact with the State refugee agency. In line with our concerns, officials of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) have initiated action to close the Miami office. We are recommending that those resources be used to further improve ACF's monitoring, oversight and technical assistance of its programs.