The Office of Refugee Resettlement said in a letter to state resettlement officials that states may not deny benefits and services to refugees based on a refugee’s country of origin or religious affiliation.
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In a letter addressed to state officials, the Office of Refugee Resettlement warned states they will be breaking the law and could faceenforcement action, including suspension or termination of the nationally funded program.
Axelrod cited US government data compiled by the Center for Immigration Studies, which estimated the cost of resettling a Middle Eastern refugee in the United States at $64,370 for the first five years, about 12 times the cost of sustaining a refugee in a neighboring country for the same period.
According to a news report by Politico, this anti-refugee bill could halt visas for Iraqi translators, who worked with the US military in Iraq.
Further compounding the problem is that none of the Gulf states signed the 1951 Refugee Convention that defines a refugee as a person “outside the country of his nationality” because of “fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality”.
Currently, the U.S.is interviewing Syrian refugee applicants in Amman, Jordan, Istanbul, Turkey, and in Cairo, Egypt. Interviews will soon be conducted in Lebanon and a few other locations.
After all, we’re talking mostly about women, old people and children, who without help are likely condemned to a miserable, short life. Obama gave the example of a woman in Florida who said her family came to the United States on the Mayflower, and that “welcoming others is part of what it means to be an American”.
Meanwhile, a group of federal law enforcers rejected Obama refugee plan, urging the president to extend care to homeless vets instead, according to the Washington Examiner.
Obama again insisted that even before Paris, refugees were facing “the highest security checks of anyone traveling to the United States”.
The letter also states that the refugees are protected by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Once the resettlement agencies are allocated a number of refugees, they go case-by-case to determine where individual refugee families will be best off.
More than 30 state governors have indicated they will attempt to block any future refugees from settling in their states.
The Obama administration has pledged to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees in the next 12 months.
Thirty-one governors vow to stop temporarily accepting Syrian refugees into their states.
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The entire resettlement process can take up to a couple of years, Alba said, with much depending on how long it takes to screen refugees. The call, led by White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough, sought to ease their concerns and share details on the federal refugee resettlement process and security screening measures.
