Governors expressed a desire to be better informed on resettlement of refugees within their borders, McDonough said in the Monday letter.
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A spokesman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich said his position remains unchanged, but that the information sharing is the least the White House should offer. “In a recent letter to my agency, the Governor noted that this unprecedented increase in Syrian refugees has caused many in the security community to raise alarm”. “Regular updates on those being placed in a state should not have to be something you must opt in to receive”.
The White House said Monday it will tell Gov. Chris Christie and other governors how many Syrian refugees are settling in their states. Kasich quickly acknowledged that his was merely a request because governors appear to have little if any power over these matters. They think that the people who are coming into to the United States from Syria are the same ones who planned and carried out the terror attacks on Paris a few weeks ago. Since then, investigative theories have shifted to European citizens who became radicalized, traveled to Syria for training and then returned to Europe. By comparison, there were 313 Iraqi refugees brought to Austin just last fiscal year.
One possible reason for this is that most refugees considered for resettlement in the USA are first referred by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – but according to Christian relief groups Christians flying the conflict are often afraid to register with the U.N. and generally avoid U.N. refugee camps because they are targeted there too.
In a separate statement, Bishop Thomas J. Tobin of Providence, Rhode Island, said although refugees’ backgrounds must be checked carefully, “it would be wrong for our nation and our state to refuse to accept refugees simply because they are Syrian or Muslim”.
The applicant’s biographical and biometric information, including fingerprints, are checked against a number of Federal Bureau of Investigation and other databases. But she had previously said that her agency was “still anticipating a need to work” within federal law to resettle families. “Congress should not punish refugees who are fleeing extremist violence in the name of national security”. “The governors want some more certainty on timing, the kind of information they’re going to get and the amount of information”. Does it seem insane to people in the middle to stop the flow of Syrian refugees to this country?
4038, was introduced in the House of Representatives on November 17, 2015, four days after the attacks on Paris, and passed two days later.
“The Governor believes that accepting refugees from Syria is incompatible with an absolute commitment to the safety of Texans”, the letter, obtained by the Houston Chronicle, reads, “because the President has shown the Governor no willingness to improve the security screenings of refugees from Syria, despite the abundant evidence that the screenings are ineffective”.
McDonough in the latest letter called it “the most robust screening process for any category of individuals seeking admission”.
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The letter to Kasich, identical letters to other governors and a step-by-step list of screening processes laid out a process that McDonough called “multi-layered and intensive, involving multiple law enforcement, national security, and intelligence agencies across the Federal Government”.
