Texas wanted assurances Monday from a major resettlement agency that it will not accept Syrian refugees and threatened legal action if Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s orders are defied.
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In a letter to Scott and all other governors, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough defended the vetting process as “extraordinarily thorough and comprehensive”. The information would be available through a password-protected website. “While no state law has banned the refugees, the governor of this state has said “no” for security reasons”, said Terri Hall, president of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom.
Last month, the House voted overwhelmingly to erect high hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees to come to the United States in the aftermath of the terror attacks in Paris. You agree that you are exclusively responsible for your communications and any content you provide.
Services to help refugees acclimate to life in the United States could be jeapordized in states where governors block Syrians, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Republican presidential candidates have called for restricting Syrian refugee entry to the United States in the wake of the Paris attacks. “The issue is that the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said that there’s significant gaps in our ability to determine the identity of people coming into this country as Syrian refugees”.
Their statement comes in response to a letter the nonprofit received from the health commissioner on Monday.
“We strongly believe that a failure to cooperate with the state on this matter violates federal law and your contract with the state”, Taylor wrote to the IRC’s Dallas branch.
A recent NBC News/SurveyMonkey online poll found that 56 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s plan to accept more Syrian refugees while 41 percent approve of letting them resettle in the U.S. Two in three say the US has a responsibility to do something about ISIS in Syria; only half of Democrats and independents agree.
Under the current process, UNHCR, the UN’s refugee agency, refers potential refugees for U.S. resettlement to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, which then vets the potential candidates.
Photo at top: Critics of the bill anxious it would harm vulnerable refugees seeking protection, most of whom are women, elderly and children.
This came to light last month when Louisiana officials learned that over a dozen Syrian refugees were relocated in the Pelican State – one in Baton Rouge and the rest in New Orleans – without alerting the state.
He later declined to sign a letter from GOP governors calling on the Obama administration to suspend Syrian refugee resettlement in the U.S.
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Refugees in Texas receive an array of public services – from cash assistance to medical care. Federal courts – including the U.S. Supreme Court – have said immigration and admission of noncitizens to the United States is a federal responsibility and one managed wholly by the federal government.
