Most others have “expressed a willingness to work with the state” to identify alternatives for Syrian refugees, according to Traylor, which essentially means finding homes somewhere other than Texas.
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The White House promised the nation’s governors Monday that it will provide them better information on Syrian refugees being resettled in their states, but said its policy on accepting those refugees remains unchanged.
“Failure by your organization to cooperate with the state of Texas as required by federal law may result in the termination of your contract with the state and other legal action”, Traylor stated in a letter to 19 refugee agencies. The governor’s office said it preferred not to comment beyond Abbott’s previous statement.
Another clause in this section appears to contradict this, however, mandating that “assistance and services funded under this section shall be provided to refugees without regard to race, religion, nationality, sex, or political opinion”.
In the wake of the Paris attacks on November 13 that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Republican-backed legislation on November 19 to suspend President Obama’s program to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees to the country. Legal specialists allege in that while the states can’t close their borders to refugees, they will complicate efforts at resettlement in the event in that they decide to withhold some funding. According to state figures, 190 Syrian refugees and 23 Syrian asylum seekers arrived in Texas in fiscal year 2015, all to large metropolitan areas. “However it is important not to conflate terrorists with the Syrian refugees who are seeking sanctuary in the United States”, a statement from the group reads.
The column, by Michael Hill, CRS senior writer, noted: “Since the Syrian Civil War began in 2011, it’s estimated that more than 250,000 people have died”.
He said the departments of State, Health and Human Services and Homeland Security were prepared to work with the governors’ association to provide more information on the vetting the resettlement process “and to discuss options for enhanced collaboration”.
More than thirty governors, mainly Republcians but with a few Democrats, have joined Abbott in barring the resettlement of Syrian refugees in their states.
Those checks are then prepared for review by DHS, when U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services initiates another “intense security check” vetted against intelligence community information, Mayorkas said.
“At NGA, we’re very used to distributing information to governors’ offices about what is going on in Washington, D.C., or different activities, so that’s perfectly familiar”, Quam said in an interview.
George estimated there are about 50 individual Syrian refugees in CT, about 12 families in all.
We don’t know whether Islamic State or other terrorist organizations are infiltrating refugees to gain entry to Europe or the United States. Officials from other agencies also would have to declare that each refugee is not a security threat.
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The same day as the conference call, Brown said OR will “continue to open the doors of opportunity” to Syrian refugees.
