A few weeks back, The Post’s Ishaan Tharoor summarized the reluctance to allow these Jewish refugees into the country. “That responsibility starts with a generous policy of admitting those Syrian refugees to the United States who are vulnerable to the most horrific mistreatment – including murder, rape, torture, and enslavement”.
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Texas has traditionally been welcoming to the world’s refugees, resettling more than any other state during the month of October, according to the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.
The actions of the USA since President Eisenhower administration when we helped overthrow a democratically elected leader in Iran for a much disliked dictator, and the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts are major reasons that have caused so much unrest and so many refugees in the Middle East. “One woman from Pennsylvania wrote to me to say, ‘Money is tight for us in my household”. Almost every governor has cited this incident, claiming that the compassion of the US could lead to deadly terror strikes at home. I think he’d be very unwise to take that [funding refugee resettlement] stance.
Others agree. “The bottom line is, refugee admission is a federal matter, reflecting our values as a nation”, said Terri Burke, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas.
Last week, the same people who want to reclaim the country (we’re not sure what they mean) from the direction the Obama administration has taken this country have railed against having 10,000 Syrian refugees admitted to the country.
Carey wrote that “all refugees are subject to the highest level of security checks of any category of traveler to the United States, a multi-layered and intensive screening and vetting process involving multiple law enforcement, national security and intelligence agencies across the federal government”.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations Florida, the state’s largest Muslim civil-liberties and advocacy organization, issued a release condemning “Scott’s divisive statement” against the resettlement of Syrian refugees in Florida.
“Syrian refugees are subject to even more precautions than other refugees”, the letter notes. But he said it’s not in the refugee program, but rather the visa program. Now, people who have previously traveled to countries known to promote terrorism will face screening before being granted entry to the U.S.
The controversy began after the Paris attacks when reports surfaced that at least one of the suspects may have entered Europe with a wave of Syrian refugees.
“The threat to the US homeland from refugees has been relatively low”. States that defy the law could face suspension or termination of their refugee resettlement programs, according to a letter signed by Robert Carey, director of the office.
Likewise, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) has said that he would “hate” to see the GOP on Capitol Hill work to cut off funding to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) programs that Obama is using to resettle Syrian refugees in America-though Rubio says he is opposed to taking “more” refugees than America already takes in annually.
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After resettlement, refugees are helped by regional non-governmental organizations.
