GOP, Democratic national security experts back settling Syrian refugees in US

From March 15, 2011 through December 1, 2015, California received the most (261) Syrian refugees, Texas received the second most with 242, and MI has received the third most with 217. There are thousands more in the pipeline waiting to come to the U.S.

The House of Representatives passed a bill before their Thanksgiving recess that essentially blocks the resettlement of Syrian and Iraqi refugees in the USA unless they pass heightened security background checks.

In a single letter, a Texas state official warned a Dallas group in that its contract with the state shall be in jeopardy if the agency doesn’t abide by Gov. …

And yet, more are being resettled in Texas.

“They have no authority to actually make that decision”, said Sarang Sekhavat, federal policy director for the Massachusetts Immigration and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.

31 governors, including every Republican governor except Utah’s Gary Herbert, have called for a suspension of Syrian refugees in their states. 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. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday, comes two weeks after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott ordered resettlement organizations in Texas to stop accepting Syrian refugees over security concerns about whether new arrivals are sufficiently screened.

The funding is used to help families like that of Fatima Idris, who came to Chicago in February after fleeing Syria.

The International Rescue Committee responded to the state health commissioner Tuesday, saying its Dallas affiliate would continue placing refugees who have been ‘admitted lawfully to the U.S.’.

The top executives of these agencies are paid handsomely. The process takes around two years and has been effective thus far.

The agencies work as an arm of the federal government but are shielded from the requirements of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

They said they’ve relocated two dozen in IN in the last 15 months. “The Ethiopian Development Council gets to know but not the governors”. “There are follow-up questions that governors are going to have with regard to this information”.

“There’s no real legal claim here”, she said. “Until Paris and this whole thing blew up, I don’t think any governor would have bothered, but now we’re seeing the power of public opinion”.

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.

The letter, dated November 25, was sent out last week to refugee resettlement programs in 49 states and the District.

The Texas Health and Human Services Commission refused to comment about its letter or the resettlement program, with spokesman Bryan Black writing in an email that “at this time, we are letting our letter do all the talking on this issue”. He said his problem is not so much with the process, but rather the lack of verifiable data personal data that the Syrian government has and has shared with the US and its screeners.