“The mayor said he believed it would only be temporary and scolded Texas for not letting the refugees into the state”.
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New Jersey Governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie made headlines when he said his state would not welcome Syrian refugees, including children under 5.
“We welcome them with open arms to the city of immigrants”, De Blasio said.
Although the Paris attacks prompted Texas’ hardline stance against Syrian refugees, Gov. Greg Abbott has also invoked the mass shootings in Southern California this week that the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism. Texas and the USA government are now clashing in court over the issue.
Texas this week asked a federal court to block the arrival of Syrian refugees, citing concerns about whether new arrivals are sufficiently screened for security.
The withdrawal came minutes after the federal government filed a response to the state’s original complaint, calling Texas’s fears baseless and “uninformed” and urging the court to deny the state’s request for a restraining order.
The lawsuit names as defendants various federal entities such as the Department of State, Secretary of State John Kerry, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, as well as International Rescue Committee, Inc., a nonprofit organization involved in refugee resettlement.
According to court documents, the state tried to convince nonprofits to stop helping the federal government’s resettlement program.
When the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian organization that helps resettle refugees, indicated that it would continue to work with the federal government and Syrian families, Texas filed a lawsuit against the US government and the IRC. Plaintiff has made no showing that these refugees pose any threat, much less an imminent one, to the safety or security of Texas residents or any other Americans.
The results of this case could determine whether the governors of more than 30 states will be able to go through with plans to bar the local resettlement of Syrian refugees. “By the same token, they may leave for any destination at any time if they so wish, albeit without the assistance of the Federal Government”.
The state withdrew its request for a restraining order nearly immediately after the federal government filed the response.
The federal government is arguing that Texas’ argument is “without merit” and says it has met its obligation to “provide advance consultation regarding individual resettlement decisions”.
The ebb in legal objections will allow 21 Syrian refugees, including two families with young children, to settle in Dallas and Houston next week. Nine other refugees – a family of eight and a 26-year-old woman – are scheduled to arrive in Houston on Thursday.
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Despite Abbott’s directive, several resettlement agencies have said they plan to continue aiding Syrian refugees, and it appears the International Rescue Committee’s Dallas branch was the first scheduled to resettle any such refugees.
