Texas pulls back effort to block Syrian refugees

“Only a mentally ill liberal would compare the Jews of the 1930s fleeing Hitler to the Syrian refugees that Obama is importing into the United States of America”, he said.

The lawsuit names as defendants various federal entities such as the Department of State, Secretary of State John Kerry, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell, as well as International Rescue Committee, Inc., a nonprofit organization involved in refugee resettlement.

The U.S. government and a private relief agency today countered the state’s lawsuit demanding that Syrian refugees be kept out of Texas, claiming it is a federal, not a state matter where refugees from foreign countries are resettled, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.

State attorneys responded by withdrawing their request for a temporary restraining order that would have barred Syrian refugees from arriving next week, but are still seeking an injunction to stop them after that.

The Obama administration and IRC opposed Texas’s motion for a restraining order in their Friday morning filings, with IRC’s lawyers – including the ACLU, ACLU of Texas, Southern Poverty Law Center, and National Immigration Law Center – arguing that Texas officials “allude[d] in an entirely speculative and vague fashion to security concerns” that are not backed up by facts.

The White House has said states do not have the legal authority to block refugee placement.

At least one assailant in the attacks, which killed 130 people, is suspected of entering the country while posing as a refugee.

The state has requested that the court set a December 9 date for a hearing on an injunction to halt Syrians from resettling.

A new Gallup poll shows that a mere six percent of displaced Syrians want to resettle here.

Majorities also said the security screening process for Syrian refugees entering the US should be made stricter. The path is now cleared for the Syrian family, which includes two young children and their grandparents, to arrive as planned Monday without interference from state Republican leaders, who questioned whether the refugees posed a threat to public safety.

“It does not create any obligation to provide advance consultation regarding individual resettlement decisions”, it said.

According to the poll, 58 percent of Americans cited United States citizens turned radicalized jihadis as the greatest terror threat facing the U.S.

– December 3-4: Twelve Syrian refugees arrive in NY; six who are destined for Dallas and six for Houston.

“We have had a strong and collaborative relationship with the State for the past 40 years, which has benefitted refugees and local communities”.

Following the recent mass shootings in San Bernardino, California, and Colorado Springs, Colorado, a new poll released Thursday reveals that Americans are more concerned about homegrown terrorists than militant foreign nationals who could come into the USA disguised as refugees.