President Barack Obama’s administration, which plans to accept about 10,000 Syrian refugees in addition to the 2,500 who have settled here since 2011, said it already takes about 18-24 months for those refugees to make it into the United States. Dalrymple said he wanted to wait until more strict screening processes were in place following the Paris terrorist attacks that included Syrian immigrants. A Bloomberg poll taken immediately after the Paris attacks shows that 53 percent of U.S. adults want to halt resettlement of Syrian refugees in the U.S. This was an eight percent increase in people opposed to the government’s decision to accept more refugees, compared to the results of a poll by the Pew Research Center in September. The International Rescue Committee – one of about 20 nonprofits that have a state contract to resettle refugees in Texas – had previously informed the state that it would resettle two families in the Dallas area in early December. The letters had opposite messages.
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The health commissioner’s warning is part of a state effort to block the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Texas.
He furthermore ordered the refugee resettlement arm of the state’s Health and Human Services Commission “to not participate in the resettlement of any Syrian refugees in the State of Texas”.
The office spends almost $1.5 billion annually to resettle about 75,000 refugees in the United States.
But the money starts at the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to Duvin’s office. Most others have “expressed a willingness to work with the state” to identify alternatives for Syrian refugees, according to Traylor, which essentially means finding homes somewhere other than Texas. “States may not deny ORR-funded benefits and services to refugees based on a refugee’s country of origin or religious affiliation”.
Refugee advocates have said the governors have no legal power to exclude entry based on a person’s nationality to anyone in the United States legally.
‘Apart from swimming the Atlantic Ocean, the refugee resettlement program is the most hard way to enter the United States’.
Groups supporting potential refugees fear the dueling letters will cause confusion. “That responsibility starts with a generous policy of admitting those Syrian refugees to the United States who are vulnerable to the most horrific mistreatment – including murder, rape, torture, and enslavement”.
Scott’s spokesperson, Jeri Bustamante, said the office is reviewing the letter. “Attempts to preempt that authority violate both equal protection and civil rights laws and intrude on authority that is exclusively federal”.
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But a state official, speaking on background, said that lawyers for the state believe they are on firm ground threatening a contract termination and potential legal action. He notes an ABC report that the administration suspended resettlement of Iraqi refugees for six months in 2009, after two refugees in Kentucky were found to have al-Qaeda ties.
