If the IRC does not end its campaign for refugee resettlement in Texas, Traylor says the state might cut funding or take legal action against the group. ISIS, otherwise known as the Islamic State or ISIL, is a key combatant in fighting in Syria and Iraq which has displaced millions of people.
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The IRC noted that the group “hopes that Texas will continue to honor this long-standing tradition and its commitment to the U.S. Constitution, and would welcome the opportunity to meet with Gov. Abbott and other state officials to discuss the resettlement of Syrian refugees”.
“We strongly believe that a failure to cooperate with the state on this matter violates federal law and your contract with the state”, wrote Chris Traylor, the head of state’s health and human services commission, in a letter to the Dallas branch of the International Rescue Committee (IRC).
The Office of Refugee Resettlement tracks where refugees go, as does the Department of State.
It was Monday when Governor Rauner’s office released a statement, saying IL would “temporarily suspend accepting new Syrian refugees”.
The information-sharing offer follows recent announcements by most governors, including Bentley, that they will oppose efforts to place Syrian refugees in their states out of fear of terrorism.
On Monday, the Obama White House announced tougher screenings for the visa waiver visitors, including bolstering the ability of the U.S.to determine who may have traveled to conflict zones, a sign that an individual may be training to be a terrorist. Currently, 31 governors have made such statements, although they lack the legal authority to block refugee admissions.
They have also argued that the governors, mostly Republicans, are targeting those who are overwhelmingly victims rather than perpetrators of violence in Syria.
“That’s why most people who understand refugee resettlement are arguing that it doesn’t make sense to target refugees not to come in a country where we have so much immigration and so many people coming in and out”, she said. In the last three years combined, less than 50 Syrians refugees entered. The International Rescue Committee – one of about 20 nonprofits that have a state contract to resettle refugees in Texas – had previously informed the state that it would resettle two families in the Dallas area in early December. If the application is accepted, the refugee is then interrogated by the National Counterterrorism Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department and the Pentagon. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has said “the risk to the safety and security of all citizens is outrageous”, and on Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller’s Facebook page run by his political campaign, images compared refugees to venomous rattlesnakes.
The U.S. bishops’ worldwide relief and development agency, Catholic Relief Services, emphasized how carefully refugees are vetted in a five-point post called “5 Reasons Not to Punish Syrian Refugees for the Paris Attacks”.
According to the State Department, the USA welcomed 1,682 Syrian refugees is fiscal year 2015.
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Syrian refugee cases would be inside the same purview, she said, and that the source of information circulating about another process is erroneous.
