The U.S. government and relief groups on Friday asked a federal judge in Texas to reject the state’s efforts to block Syrian refugees.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement the USA government is legally obligated to consult with Texas in advance of resettlement. Basically, now that Texas knows for sure that the Syrian family and their two little kids totally aren’t terrorists, they’ll let them in; apparently all Syrian refugees are terrorists in Texas’ eyes until proven otherwise.
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. “At any moment, at any given time, you can be killed”.
On Wednesday, the Texas Tribune reported that 242 Syrian refugees have been resettled in Texas over the past three years.
In a brief filed with a federal court Friday, the International Rescue Committee declared its opposition to the injunction filed by Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office on behalf of the state’s Health and Human Services Commission.
Rep. Gene Green of the 29th Congressional District said, “States don’t control their borders with other states”. The family members arrived in NY earlier this week and have been waiting out the legal wrangling. The family will arrive in Dallas on Monday, and a second six-person family will arrive in Houston that same day. Both said the state had no authority to stop the refugees from coming.
“The FBI as well as other federal officials have made it clear – they have no ability to ensure the safety and security of the refugees they are admitting into the United States”, Abbott has said.
Since the fiscal year 2011, 243 Syrian refugees have resettled in Texas, the US filing said, making the state one of the main USA relocation sites since the Syrian civil war erupted about four years ago.
242 Syrian refugees who have resettled in Texas since 2012.
However, as the complaint alleges, neither this nonprofit group nor the federal government have met their obligations under the Refugee Act of 1980 to consult with Texas about these refugees.
Paxton said the lawsuit succeeded in cajoling “requested information” about the refugees but did not elaborate. “And it would do so in order to prevent refugee families with small children from entering the state”.
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. 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.
A spokeswoman for the International Rescue Committee said the Syrian family of six had arrived in NY on Friday.
The White House says states don’t have the legal authority to block refugee placement. Her group is representing the International Rescue committee, or IRC, in the lawsuit.
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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.
