“We hope that by meeting this family, Gov. Pence will reconsider his position that Syrian refugees are unwelcome in IN”, a statement from the Syrian American Council read. He added “due to safety and privacy concerns our organization can’t disclose resettlement details of Syrians or any refugees that have arrived in Houston”.
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Pence was among two dozen mostly-Republican governors who have said they are halting the resettlement of refugees from Syria in their state.
A few people were happy to be resettled in Texas this week – 21 Syrian refugees, including 6 children, were placed with family members in Dallas and Houston.
Godbey said the state had submitted “speculative hearsay” in alleging that extremists could be among the refugees resettling in Texas. (It generally takes between 18 and 24 months and is organized by nongovernmental organizations in conjunction with federal agencies.) Advocates for refugee resettlement compared the knee-jerk reactions of the states to the early 1930s, when the USA blocked the immigration of many Jews fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany. “The Court has no institutional competency in assessing the risk posed by refugees”. “We simply can not trust this Administration to put in place the rigorous vetting system needed to ensure that the refugees who enter our nation will not be future threats to the American people and our way of life”.
Texas is among almost 30 states that have vowed to keep out Syrian refugees since the Paris attacks. Texas said it no longer wanted an immediate order stopping refugees, but would continue its lawsuit.
After the Paris terrorist attacks in November, governors of over 20 states indicated they would block the entry of Syrian refugees to their states. “And if we’ve learned anything, we’ve learned that states are addicted to federal funding”.
But the second try from Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, filed Wednesday, said there was new “evidence” that refugees pose potential danger.
Objecting to Pence’s position are the ACLU, which filed a lawsuit arguing that Pence does not have the authority to bar refugees, and the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, which settled a family in IN this week over the governor’s objections.
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In Dallas, volunteers who regularly work with refugees say they’ve actually seen an uptick in donations and offers to help in the wake of more attention being paid to Syrian refugees.
