“All they’re asking for is safety”, said Lucy Carrigan, spokeswoman for the nonprofit International Rescue Committee (IRC), which is coordinating the Dallas resettlements.
Advertisement
The ebb in legal objections will allow 21 Syrian refugees, including two families with young children, to settle in Dallas and Houston next week. The attorney general’s press release said that historically represents about 10 percent of the total number of Syrians being taken in by the United States.
The swift reversal diffused a lawsuit the Obama administration criticized as unfounded. Breitbart Texas also asked if the attorney general is confident that these Syrian refugees have been properly screened and pose no threat to the security of Texas and Texans.
Legal experts were not surprised by the move, since the state has no authority over immigration or refugee resettlement, and the federal government has been informing the state about the refugee vetting process and the resettlement program.
According to the court filings, 12 Syrian refugees who are headed for Texas arrived in NY yesterday and today. Since the Paris attacks, at least 29 US governors have vowed to keep new Syrian refugees outside their state borders.
“We think it is a very good first step toward ultimately getting back on track to get Syrian refugee families settled in Texas”, she said.
Paxton said that, while he remained concerned about the effectiveness of the federal government’s background checks into Syrian refugees, it was important that Texas retain a “seat at the table” when dealing with refugees.
Paxton said the lawsuit succeeded in cajoling “requested information” about the refugees but did not elaborate. In Texas, the refugees set to arrive next week include a single woman hoping to reunite with her mother.
On that same day, another Syrian family will arrive in Houston, where another group of eight refugees from the war-torn Middle Eastern country is expected to arrive on Thursday. “If families come from NY we can’t stop them from coming to Texas”. In November, Breitbart Texas’ Lana Shadwick reported on testimony given by some of President Obama’s top advisors on national security who admitted that screening these refuges is not likely to be effective.
Speaking to VOA, Michael Olivas, a law professor at the University of Houston’s Law Center, said the federal government has exclusive authority on these matters.
Advertisement
On Wednesday, the Texas Tribune reported that 242 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Texas over the past three years.
