Unlike political asylees, who generally enter the United States without permission and then apply for legal status, refugees enter the country legally after applying for refugee status at a U.S. Embassy or consulate in a foreign country. While GOP candidates like Texas Senator Ted Cruz have talked about admitting Christian refugees from Syria, half of Republicans would also reject Christian Syrians.
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“Refugees are resettled in 180 communities across the United States in cooperation with state and local governments and with the assistance of local volunteer agencies that work to ensure communities are able to welcome and integrate these new arrivals”, the State Department official said.
Josh McDonald, a first-year student studying global relations at UCSD, supports the statements made by Brown, stating, “With the amount of states outrightly refusing to accept any refugees, I think it’s great that Brown is willing to admit them into the state”.
The White House will provide governors across the country with more information on Syrian refugees who are being resettled in their states.
Last year, more than 7,000 people came to Texas for refugee resettlement but they weren’t just from Syria. “Therefore, Governor Pence’s stance on the refugee resettlement program has not changed”. Over the holiday weekend, refugee assist groups within the state found themselves caught in a cross fire between state & federal officers regarding whether or not they may moreover assist new Syrian refugees.
Obama has said the vetting process for refugee resettlement is “the most thorough” of any category of immigrant, and that states lack legal authority to block the funding.
But a state official, speaking on background, said that lawyers for the state believe they are on firm ground threatening a contract termination and potential legal action.
The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement last week warned Abbott and other governors that they do not have the power to reject Syrian refugees, telling them they would be breaking the law if they denied benefits or services to refugees based on their country of origin or religion.
Lawmakers who advocate linking the Syrian refugee issue to the omnibus spending bill feel that public opinion would be with them this time, despite polls showing the majority of Americans blamed Republicans for partial government shutdowns in 1996 and 2013.
Abilene’s branch of the International Rescue Committee is holding a donation drive to help refugees resettling in the area.
The Texas state in the USA will sue agencies that fail to follow an order issued by Governor Greg Abbott to not accept more Syrian refugees, the media reported on Tuesday.
Anne Marie Weiss-Armush, president of DFW International, a network of internationally focused groups in the Dallas-Fort Worth region, said her organization’s Refugee Support Network has helped furnish the apartment and stock the kitchen.
The funding comes from the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The White House is proposing a new process to give governors more information on refugees in their state.
“Of the over 4 million refugees now living in limbo on Syria’s border, the USA government has committed to resettling a modest 10,000”, the IRC said.
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Of the total 2,296 Syrian refugees admitted since March 2011, 633 (27.5 percent) are men aged between 14 and 50. The House of Representatives, defying a veto threat by Obama, has passed Republican-backed legislation to suspend the refugee program.
