Recent terrorist attacks in Paris have turned eyes in the United States toward these refugees and the potential threat they may pose.
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The Obama administration reminded state officials last week they don’t have the legal authority to refuse to accept Syrian refugees.
“We strongly believe that a failure to cooperate with the state on this matter violates federal law and your contract with the state”, wrote Chris Traylor, executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, in the letter addressed to the Dallas office of the International Rescue Committee.
Snyder was the first governor to suspend the acceptance of Syrian refugees earlier this month, calling for a “pause” in resettlement after Islamic State terrorists carried out attacks in Paris and Beirut and claimed credit for bringing down a plane in Egypt. “States may not categorically deny ORR-funded benefits and services to Syrian refugees”, wrote Robert Carey, the office’s director.
Scott and other governors have argued it has been impossible to background check all of the refugees and that individual states are not able to track them once they’ve been placed.
Taylor said that the state’s funding to the non-profit organization IRC would be cut, threatening “other legal action”. While GOP candidates like Texas Senator Ted Cruz have talked about admitting Christian refugees from Syria, half of Republicans would also reject Christian Syrians.
As USA Today reports, governors will receive reports including the nationality, age range and gender of the total number of refugees.
For the threats of a lawsuit against refugee resettlement agencies, Rosenthal says it is possible they could end up in court.
Those states that request it would be given information about refugees settled in the prior month and fiscal year, and access to a password-protected website that would be updated monthly for each state.
Obama has pledged to resettle 10,000 refugees, and several Republican governors, Christie among them, have said they do not want them in their states.
Once approved by the resettlement program a refugee will go on to process into American communities through one of nine national voluntary agencies that oversee a network of some 250 affiliates in 49 states.
“We have a cooperative agreement (with the federal government) that mandates our services”, Duvin said.
Syrian refugees in the United States have become a political football after the Paris attacks.
Texas leads the United States in resettling Syrian refugees from their country’s four-year civil war.
Syrian refugee cases would be inside the same purview, she said, and that the source of information circulating about another process is erroneous.
With issues like funding for Planned Parenthood and Medicaid expansion, the state government and the federal government clearly have policy differences, Rosenthal says.
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The U.S. House has passed legislation that would effectively halt the nation’s refugee resettlement efforts for Syrian and Iraqi refugees but Obama has said he would veto the measure if it passed the Senate. Catholic Bishops, for one, came out right before the Thanksgiving holiday and said that they will support Syrian refugees and other groups have also voiced support.
