The state of Texas is suing the federal government and the resettlement agency International Rescue Committee (IRC) for failing to communicate enough in compliance with a 1980 refugee resettlement law.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit this week seeking to stop several Syrian refugees seeking to resettle in Houston and Dallas.
Three Syrian refugee families have arrived in New York City after Texas sued to try to stop their resettlement there. He accused the IRC of violating federal law by not cooperating with the state after Abbott last month ordered resettlement groups in Texas to stop accepting Syrians.
Paxton said in a statement that the change was prompted by the federal government’s willingness to provide more information about the incoming refugees – not by the Justice Department’s brief. The family will arrive in Dallas on Monday, and a second six-person family will arrive in Houston that same day.
Fears that terrorists could gain entry into the country by posing as refugees flying the bloody civil war in Syria arose following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.
“I think it’s very good news for some of the families for whom there was some uncertainty about what would happen next but, of course, we still have a long way to go”, Robertson said.
Texas has led the nation in recent years in the resettlement of refugees, surpassing California.
Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, president of DFW International, a network of internationally focused groups in Dallas-Fort Worth, said her organization’s Refugee Support Network has helped gather furnishing for the family and stocked the kitchen.
Abbott has said he was concerned that US security screening is ineffective and could allow people with ties to terrorism to be admitted.
Federal officials told U.S. District Judge David Godbey in court filings that Texas was harming national interests determined by President Barack Obama.
A representative for the International Rescue Committee says the Syrian families are now in the country, but will not come to North Texas for a few more days.
Texas officials had filed for a restraining order against 21 refugees scheduled to be settled in the state next week.
Meanwhile, Indiana’s governor said he has asked a Roman Catholic archdiocese to not bring a Syrian refugee family to the state.
In a federal court filing, the Indianapolis-based Exodus Refugee Immigration said Mr Pence’s order would “frustrate and thwart” its mission of helping refugees.
There are lots of reasons, as 20 leading national security experts explained in letters to Congress earlier this week (and as Paul Rosenzweig explained in a thorough Lawfare post) to be deeply skeptical of any suggestion that the Syrian refugees pose any greater threat to our national security than any other non-citizen immigrating to the United States.
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