No action for years on Ohio board for African immigrants

COLUMBUS (AP) — Members of Ohio’s growing African immigrant community say they’re hopeful a decade-long wait for their own state advocacy board is almost over.

Immigrant groups backing the board say they’ve submitted names of potential commission members several times over the years to the House and Senate, which then make recommendations to the governor for appointment.

The New African Immigrants Commission would advocate for people from countries like Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal and Somalia, among others.

State lawmakers created the 11-person board in 2008, with the law enacting it taking effect the following year. Among the commission’s duties: to “gather and disseminate information and conduct hearings, conferences, investigations, and special studies on problems and programs concerning sub-Saharan African people.”

The commission was “a common-sense way to take the refugees that are coming to our country and help them assimilate and become productive members of our society,” said Republican state Sen. Kevin Bacon, who supported the idea a decade ago as a state rep as a way to help better integrate central Ohio’s growing population of Somali refugees. He says he doesn’t know why the commission was never activated.

There has been little interest in filling the commission since Republican Rep. Cliff Rosenberger became speaker of the Ohio House in 2015, said House GOP spokesman Brad Miller.