The president has outlined a goal of bringing 10,000 more Syrian refugees to the US during the current budget year. On Tuesday, speaking from the Philippines, Obama said those who seek to shut the door on refugees fleeing the ever-expanding violence in Syria are “scared of widows and 3-year-old orphans”.
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Pence’s decision comes after Friday’s terrorist attacks in Paris that left more than 120 people dead and 352 wounded. There is evidence that one of the attackers may have slipped in with the refugees flooding Europe, though Germany’s top security expert said a passport carried by one of the attackers may have been a ploy to stoke fears.
It was the first of a number of national TV appearances the governor is expected to make this week as he is becoming the face of about 30 governors who are resisting the placement of Syrian refugees in their states.
“They want to form their own little country within your country”, says Carl Levitan, a retired machinist in Williamson County north of Austin.
But, when pressed by reporters to answer whether state governors have the power to block Syrian refugees, Toner says he doesn’t have an answer as to whether governors can legally turn away refugees.
After the UNHCR grants refugee status, the Department of State’s Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration (PRM) oversees the program of settling refugees, whose families are usually referred together as a single group. State authorities have no legal authority to bar refugees from moving to their jurisdictions. “I especially encourage my fellow Republicans to recognise that refugees are not the problem – they are the symptom of the problem”. “And I don’t think that’d be an appropriate line to draw”, he said in an AP interview.
Gov. Greg Abbott Tuesday directed state agencies to use their “full authority” to keep Syrian refugees from resettling in Texas and took the national stage to call President Barack Obama out on the issue.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings, meanwhile, said he’s told local pastors they could count on him to help shelter Syrian refugees who arrive through “any organized, thoroughly vetted program that the country asks Dallas to participate in”.
About 210 Syrian refugees have settled in Texas in the last 15 months. Still, Obama acknowledged that the USA public was concerned about attacks on the homeland, noting that Paris “reminds us of home”.
We should be vigilant, but we can – and should – find a way to come to the refugees’ relief.
The Senate, where Republicans hold a smaller majority than in the House, would have to approve any legislation on refugees before it could take effect.
Republican leaders and House committee chairs appeared to be coalescing around draft legislation that would freeze the program for Syrian as well as Iraqi refugees.
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MI Republican Gov. Rick Snyder found it helpful to “hear in much greater detail the work that has happened on the screening and security procedures and process”, spokeswoman Sara Wurfel said.
