Congress returns to Washington this week facing a potential showdown over Syrian refugees resettling in the USA, a battle that could lead to a partial shutdown of the government.
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“We are also hoping to meet with Governor Abbott to do our piece to persuade him and other officials of State of the integrity of the refugee security process”, Lucy Carrigan, a spokeswoman for the IRC, told the Dallas Morning News.
So it is not surprising that most Americans, even a majority of Democrats, favor having the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Secretary of Homeland Security certify that each individual Syrian or Iraqi refugee is not a security threat to the United States, part of legislation passed by the House of Representatives last week. The monthly report would include the number of refugees resettled in the state and break the data down by nationality, age and gender.
The list of governors who oppose the idea of letting Syrian refugees into their states is steadily increasing. Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, for example, has directed state agencies not to assist with resettling Syrian refugees, a move now being challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union. This newfound fear arose from the belief that one of the suspects in the Paris bombings entered Europe through a recent wave of Syrian refugees.
With issues like funding for Planned Parenthood and Medicaid expansion, the state government and the federal government clearly have policy differences, Rosenthal says.
States doing so could face suspension or termination from funding of resettlement services in their state, it said. “They’re saying, ‘OK, you want to know who is coming to your state, from where?” The Obama administration, which says the vetting process is thorough and can take up to two years, has outlined a goal of bringing 10,000 more Syrian refugees to the USA during the current budget year.
The Texas Health and Human Services Commission refused to comment about its letter or the resettlement program, with spokesman Bryan Black writing in an email that “at this time, we are letting our letter do all the talking on this issue”. In the end, states may have little ability to control the flow of refugees. They also go through medical exams and cultural orientation classes and have their information checked against multiple federal databases of terrorists and risky people.
We helped create the refugee problem – we should help solve it!
He claims that by continuing to help the refugees, the IRC is defying Gov. Greg Abbott’s decision to not accept any refugees into the state – though this was an order made without the appropriate legal authority, according to The Huffington Post.
From a Jewish perspective, however, we don’t see how the United States (and Georgia and other states that have announced their meaningless refusal to take refugees) can say no to the few refugees the Obama administration has agreed to take.
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Let us not forget that from the 9/11 attacks on the United States to this year’s January and November attacks on Paris, the culprits were either legal residents or illegal immigrants, not faux refugees.
