Sunday, January 14, 2018

Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic

Simon Henshaw, the acting assistant secretary for the department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, announced in an email to colleagues on Saturday that he planned to leave his post in the coming days.

The email was reported by Reuters. Henshaw said he will remain at the State Department in a different capacity.

“After 4 and a half years in the job and a year into the new administration, I thought it time for me to move on,” Henshaw wrote.

Carol O'Connell, the deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, will take charge of the bureau on Jan. 22, Henshaw said, according to Reuters.

[...]

Reuters reported earlier this week that another senior official at the State Department's refugee bureau, Lawrence Bartlett, the head of refugee admissions, had been temporarily reassigned to the office that handles Freedom of Information Act requests.

  The Hill
Quick, fix that "shithole" situation. HOW?? Put the African affairs person in the Migration department.

Also, it appears Mr. Bartlett didn't relish the idea of being sidelined to FOIA. He's quitting.
A current official described such a re-assignment as a form of internal exile like being sent “to Siberia.”

“The FOIA office was always the punch line of a joke around here, as in: ‘They’ll send me to the FOIA office,'” the official said.

Bartlett’s reassignment is the latest sign that the way the United States resettles refugees is being reshaped by the Trump administration, which is determined to restrict refugee admissions, advocates said.

  Reuters
I guess Mr. Bartlett didn't like being sent to a shithole.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

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