A spokeswoman for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston said in a statement that it had not received a letter from the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, “so no final determination has been made regarding our next steps for resettling Syrian refugees”.
Advertisement
The new system comes as 31 governors have sought to block President Obama from placing Syrian refugees in their states following the Paris attacks linked to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was one of over thirty state politicians who refused to accept Syrian refugees in November, but now an organization in Dallas is defying his orders.
The controversy over Syrian refugees and where they will be placed is blowing the lid off the federal government’s refugee resettlement program as governors are learning just how secretive this program really is.
In this photo taken Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015, Syrian refugees Reem Habashieh, right, and her mother Khawla Kareem, left, prepare dinner in their flat in Zwickau, eastern Germany.
From Jan. 1 through mid-November 1,861 refugees from Syria had resettled in the United States, including 104 in Florida, State Department records show.
Governor Pence says a White House letter seeking to reassure governors about the Syrian refugee program isn’t enough to satisfy his concerns.
Texas health officials say other resettlement groups are cooperating, though IRC is not the only group in Texas that has pledged to continue accepting Syrians. A large number of Syrian refugees have also resettled in California and MI.
Carrigan said that the IRC has “had a longstanding presence in Texas”, and intends to continue “working with state officials to work through this particular issue and to assuage their fears”. A previous ABC News investigation in 2013 found that two Iraqi refugees resettled in Kentucky turned out to be terrorists with links to al Qaeda, and dozens of other suspected terrorists may have been allowed into the United States as well.
Texas could potentially cut off funding from groups, Rosenthal says.
State officials have upped the ante against groups that provide services for Syrian Refugees. Rosenthal says that this type of letter could be sent to any refugee resettlement group in the state that takes a similar public position.
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the IRC is one of 22 voluntary relief agencies operating in Texas. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said “the risk to the safety and security of all citizens is outrageous”, and on Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s Facebook page run by his political campaign, images compared refugees to venomous rattlesnakes. The top receiving states this fiscal year has been California (53), Arizona (42), Pennsylvania (40), Kentucky (38), OH (37), Texas (35), Florida (31), and MI (30).
Advertisement
Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas, sent a letter with at least 73 Republican signatures calling on House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, and House Appropriations Committee Chair Hal Rogers, R-Kentucky, to halt funding for refugee resettlement in the spending bill unless the White House establishes stricter vetting procedures for refugees.
