President Obama asks for empathy in refugee crisis

Simon Henshaw, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the U.S. State Department’s population, refugees and migration bureau, joined Morning Edition to explain more about the vetting process, as well as the relationship between the federal government and MA in the current resettlement system.

Program chief Robert Carey said that states may not deny OPR-funded benefits and services based on a refugee’s country of origin or religious affiliation.

US President Barack Obama today delivered a Thanksgiving message in which he compared modern refugees to the pilgrims whom the holiday celebrates, urging Americans to open their arms to the potential immigrants.

The bill’s backers say that if the Obama administration has really vetted all of the refugees as it says, such certification should be easy and will go a long way toward ensuring Americans that someone is directly responsible for the program.

Well over half of the country’s governors, too, oppose refugee settlement in their states.

He said the ethnic Chechen brothers who killed three people and injured 264 in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing attack had lived in the United States for a decade before developing militant Islamist views.

A spokesman for the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees refugee resettlement in the state, said the letter will not change its position.

Lieutenant Governor Phil Scott had called for a pause in allowing Syrian refugees to be settled in Vermont following the November 13 terrorist attacks in Paris.

“No refugee can enter our borders until they undergo the highest security checks of anyone traveling to the United States”. Local officials, including Mayor Ivy Taylor and Councilman Ron Nirenberg, said yesterday that San Antonio would welcome refugees, despite the rhetoric from some of the state’s other elected officials.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to suspend the refugee plan and intensify refugee screening measures before lawmakers left Washington for the Thanksgiving break. In contrast to European nations, the United States screens all refugees for 18-24 months before they even set foot on USA soil. President Obama has said the US will remain a welcoming place for refugees from around the world. Wyoming does not have a refugee resettlement program.

The Obama Administration is issuing a showdown with states that are refusing to accept Syrian refugees.

President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation. It also has used the events to invite US state governors to meet with Syrian refugees who already have settled in their states.