Texas Drops Request for Court Order to Stop Syrian Refugees

People hold signs during a rally to show support for Muslim members of the community near the Clear Lake Islamic Center in Webster, Texas on Friday, Dec. 4, 2015.

The church and mosque are neighbors.

New York City is taking on Syrian refugees, being turned away from Texas.

“Three families seeking refuge from their warn-torn home in Syria have arrived in NYC”, de Blasio said in a statement on Friday.

Texas leaders, including Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton have expressed concern over the federal government’s ability to properly screen these refugees.

But the state is still moving forward with its lawsuit requesting a preliminary injunction on Syrian refugee resettlement until the feds and resettlement agencies provide Texas with more case information related to the refugees.

“It is supposed to consult, as it is doing with the various states”, he said, “but the final word and the choices are to be made by the federal government”.

After the Paris attacks in November, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, was one of the first governors to seek to block the resettlement of Syrians into their states.

The International Rescue Committee plans to relocate a family of six Syrians to Dallas on December 7 and another family of six Syrians to Houston the same day.

Professor Geoffrey Hoffman, director of the immigration clinic at the University of Houston, said “the state’s attempt to prevent or block Syrian refugees could reasonably be interpreted as an attempt to interfere with the federal executive power to regulate and enforce immigration”. A second family of six, including four children, is scheduled to be resettlement on Monday in Houston, the suit said.

One of the first states to come out saying it would refuse to accept any Syrian refugees, has reversed course.

The International Rescue Committee, the relief agency resettling the refugees, filed a separate lawsuit against the state asserting that Texas could not discriminate against refugees based on nationality.

Dallas-based U.S. District Judge David Godbey could rule as soon as today on the request of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission for a temporary restraining order.

Wednesday: Attorney General Ken Paxton files a federal lawsuit seeking an emergency court order blocking the International Rescue Committee from resettling Syrians in Texas, ahead of the expected arrival of Syrians in Dallas and Houston.

Although the Paris attacks prompted Texas’ hardline stance against Syrian refugees, Gov. Greg Abbott has also invoked the mass shootings in Southern California this week that the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism.

The state has also requested that nonprofit groups stop providing aid to refugees fleeing from the violence of Syria.